Senator Bernie Sanders is back on his healthcare soapbox, and this time he's framing it around something plenty of workers can relate to: staying in a job you hate because you can't afford to lose the health insurance.
The Medicare for All Pitch Gets Personal
The Vermont Independent took to X on Sunday with a straightforward message: "Millions of Americans remain at jobs they hate for one reason: the health insurance they receive. That's absurd. Universal health care will give Americans the freedom to choose the work they want without worrying about health care coverage. Another reason for Medicare for All."
It's not a new argument for Sanders, who has championed Medicare for All for years. His vision would essentially eliminate most private insurance and replace it with a single national program, guaranteeing coverage regardless of employment status. The goal, he says, is to treat healthcare as a right rather than a workplace perk.
In a recent Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee report, Sanders took aim at Republican healthcare proposals, warning they could cause premiums to "double, tripling or even quadrupling for millions of Americans." He added that the U.S. "cannot remain the only major country not to guarantee health care as a human right."
Job Lock Is Real, and It's Widespread
What Sanders is describing has an official name in policy circles: "job lock." Economists and federal auditors use the term to describe workers who stick with jobs they'd otherwise leave because they can't risk losing affordable health coverage.
The scale is significant. Employer-sponsored plans remain the primary source of health insurance for non-elderly Americans, covering somewhere between 165 and 178 million people, according to data from KFF. Sanders argues that breaking the link between employment and insurance would give Americans the "freedom and security" to pursue better opportunities or start their own businesses without gambling their family's health on the outcome.
AI and the Future of Work Enter the Conversation
During an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday, Sanders expanded his critique beyond healthcare, warning that Republicans are pushing the country toward a "dangerous" future for workers. He pointed to tech leaders Elon Musk and Bill Gates, both of whom have suggested that artificial intelligence and automation could make human labor "optional" or render people "not needed for most things."
In Sanders' view, that makes universal healthcare even more essential. If AI genuinely starts eliminating jobs at scale, guaranteeing healthcare as a human right becomes critical to economic security, especially for people currently clinging to jobs they despise just for the insurance card.