--- title: Donald Trump Calls Bernie Sanders' Single-Payer Plan a Curse description: President Donald Trump attacked Bernie Sanders’ single-player health care plan on Thursday, calling it a “curse on the U.S” canonical: https://time.com/4942392/trump-bernie-sanders-single-payer-health-care-plan-curse/ author: Abigail Abrams article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-14T20:39:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T11:14:51.705Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Calls Bernie Sanders' Single-Payer Health Care Plan a 'Curse on the U.S.' og:description: But he's expressed support for Australia's single-payer system in the past og:url: https://time.com/4942392/trump-bernie-sanders-single-payer-health-care-plan-curse/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc0bf2f2b11603365/6988dddf656a3f31d9bd1b1c/donald-trump-president-bernie-sanders-single-payer-medicare-health-care.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: President Trump Departs White House For Florida og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Calls Bernie Sanders' Single-Payer Health Care Plan a 'Curse on the U.S.' twitter:description: But he's expressed support for Australia's single-payer system in the past twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc0bf2f2b11603365/6988dddf656a3f31d9bd1b1c/donald-trump-president-bernie-sanders-single-payer-medicare-health-care.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Calls Bernie Sanders' Single-Payer Health Care Plan a 'Curse on the U.S.' > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=5060e047-e108-4ae9-bf13-fec2957ecae2&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Abigail Abrams](https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/) ## Abigail Abrams Sep 14, 2017 8:39 PM UTC  President Donald Trump departs the White House September 14, 2017 in Washington, D.C. President Donald Trump departs the White House September 14, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Win McNamee—Getty Images by [Abigail Abrams](https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/) ## Abigail Abrams Sep 14, 2017 8:39 PM UTC President Donald Trump attacked Bernie Sanders’ single-player health care plan on Thursday, calling it a “curse on the U.S.” “Bernie Sanders is pushing hard for a single payer healthcare plan – a curse on the U.S. & its people,” Trump tweeted Thursday afternoon. “I told Republicans to approve healthcare fast or this would happen. But don’t worry, I will veto because I love our country & its people.” Sanders introduced the latest version of his [“Medicare for All” health care bill](http://time.com/4939320/bernie-sanders-single-payer-medicare-all-health-care/?iid=sr-link1) on Wednesday with a third of his Democratic colleagues in the Senate co-sponsoring the legislation. The bill would transform the U.S. health care system into one in which the [federal government insures](http://time.com/money/4733018/what-is-single-payer-healthcare-system/) all Americans. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/908413134196572161) It’s not going to pass in a Republican-controlled Congress, but the idea of single-payer health care is [gaining popularity](http://time.com/4937840/bernie-sanders-health-care-single-payer-medicare-all/?iid=sr-link4) among Democratic lawmakers and voters. Sanders responded to Trump’s tweets on Thursday, saying that single-payer health care is what he believes the government should be doing. The Vermont Senator also criticized the Republicans’ health care plan from earlier this year that would have cut costs and caused millions to lose their health insurance. > [](https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/908418348387627011) Many other countries already have some version of universal health care, and it has been [shown to be effective](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/health-costs-how-the-us-compares-with-other-countries/). In the past, Trump himself has expressed some enthusiasm for these models. In May, for example, Trump [praised Australia’s universal health care system](http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/04/politics/trump-us-australia-health-care/) when he told the Australian prime minister: “you have better health care than we do.” Australia’s health care system, called [Medicare](http://www.aph.gov.au/About%5FParliament/Parliamentary%5FDepartments/Parliamentary%5FLibrary/Publications%5FArchive/archive/medicare), gives its citizens access to doctors and public hospitals paid for by the country’s government. In 2014, Australia’s system ranked sixth out of 51 countries in efficiency, while the U.S. ranked 44th, according to [Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/infographics/most-efficient-health-care-around-the-world.html). The U.S. spent 17% of its GDP on health care compared to just 9% in Australia. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4942392/trump-bernie-sanders-single-payer-health-care-plan-curse/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4942392/trump-bernie-sanders-single-payer-health-care-plan-curse/"},"headline":"President Trump Calls Bernie Sanders' Single-Payer Health Care Plan a 'Curse on the U.S.'","datePublished":"2017-09-14T20:39:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T11:14:51.705Z","description":"But he's expressed support for Australia's single-payer system in the past","url":"https://time.com/4942392/trump-bernie-sanders-single-payer-health-care-plan-curse/","keywords":["Health Care","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc0bf2f2b11603365/6988dddf656a3f31d9bd1b1c/donald-trump-president-bernie-sanders-single-payer-medicare-health-care.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Abigail Abrams","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc0bf2f2b11603365/6988dddf656a3f31d9bd1b1c/donald-trump-president-bernie-sanders-single-payer-medicare-health-care.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Departs White House For Florida","caption":"President Trump Departs White House For Florida","creditText":"Win McNamee—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/health-care/","name":"Health Care"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4942392/trump-bernie-sanders-single-payer-health-care-plan-curse/","name":"President Trump Calls Bernie Sanders' Single-Payer Health Care Plan a 'Curse on the U.S.'"}}]}] ```