WATCH: Sanders asks Trump budget director nominee if ‘health care is a human right’

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., asked Russell Vought, the president’s nominee to run the White House Office of Management and Budget, on Wednesday if he believes health care is a human right.

“Do you think the function of the American health care system should be to make huge profits for the insurance companies and the drug companies, or do you think, maybe, we should have a system that guarantees health care to all people as a human right?” Sanders asked. “Do you believe that health care is a human right?” The Vermont senator pressed the nominee within the context that the United States is the only major industrialized nation in the world that does not have universal health care.
The question came during Vought’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Budget Committee on Capitol Hill.

“I believe that it’s very, very important that we put the health care dollars that the taxpayers are are are covering for the health care system, which you just mentioned is substantial, and to make sure we have the best outcomes in those programs,” Vought said. “I want the people who benefit from Medicaid to have a great Medicaid program.”

Sanders pressed Vought, who was closely involved with a document called Project 2025 that provided a conservative blueprint for the next Republican administration, for a clearer answer and noted that he would be an adviser to the president if the Senate approved his confirmation.
Vought said it was “important to provide legitimate evidence-based outcomes for people within the health care system.”

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