Funding for Bernie Sanders' health care plan would fall $18 trillion short, studies say

Sorry, Bernie.
(Image credit: Mark Makela/Getty Images)

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has a plan to create national health insurance, a program he says would be paid for through increased taxes on the wealthy. Just one problem: Two studies today jointly published by left-leaning think tanks argue that, over the course of a decade, there's an $18 trillion gap between the money that taxes would rake in and the cost of his health care plan.

The work from the Tax Policy Center and the Urban Institute suggests that Sanders has just $15 trillion planned in new taxes, while his health care plan would cost the government $33 trillion, leaving the poor and middle class to potentially foot more of the bill than the Vermont senator has budgeted for.

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Julie Kliegman

Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.