Today, Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced a bill that would radically change our nation’s health care system, putting the government in charge of Americans’ health care decision making. The Heritage Foundation’s senior fellow Robert Moffit offered the following response:

“This legislation would exacerbate the problems our health care system already faces and make patient choice irrelevant in health care. Whether you like it or not, the government will decide what kind of care you’ll receive, and there will be no alternatives.”

“In other countries with government-run health care, patients are often denied access to advanced medical technologies and they face longer wait times to see specialists.

“Even America’s version of ‘single-payer’ health care, the Veterans Health Administration, has been plagued by delays and denials of crucial medical care. The result has been one of the most serious scandals in the history of the federal government—where veterans languished and died because of a manipulation of the program’s waiting lists.

“Congress owes it to America to make our health care system stronger and defeat the radical left’s efforts to destroy patient choice. The Health Care Choices Proposal would allow patients to have even more control over their health care, lower health care costs and protect the most vulnerable to have continued access to care."