Sen. Bernie Sanders put a question to the crowd in Alpena, Michigan, on Monday, October 26, 2026: how many major countries on earth do not guarantee healthcare to every man, woman and child in their country? “One,” he said. “It’s called the United States of America, and you are living in it.”
Sanders said healthcare is a human right guaranteed to all people, and that the U.S. system exists to make huge profits for the insurance companies and the drug companies.
Source: Bernie Sanders.
Context
Healthcare has been one of the main fights of the midterm campaign. Democrats have attacked the Trump administration and congressional Republicans over the cost of coverage and care, while Republicans argue the system needs market fixes rather than a government guarantee. Sanders has made Medicare for All the center of his politics for a decade, and his Fighting Oligarchy tour has carried that message into states Democrats need in November. His Alpena stop came one week before the November 3 midterms, when control of Congress, and with it the direction of health policy, will be decided. The question he put to the crowd is the one he has asked all across the tour: whether the richest country in the world should treat care as a right or as a product.
