Sanders, Set to Chair Senate HELP Committee, Proposes Medicare at 55 and Says He's Open to Impeaching RFK Jr.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wasted no time after the midterms. In a video posted to social media on Thursday, Nov. 5, he told Democrats what to do with their new power.

"As an immediate first step, Democrats must lower the Medicare eligibility age from 65 down to 55, expand Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing, and guarantee universal health care coverage for every child from birth through age 19," Sanders said.

His claim is that all of it "can be accomplished with 51 votes in the Senate through the reconciliation process." That is the budget procedure that sidesteps the filibuster. He repeated the push on Sunday, Nov. 8, writing "Let's do it" on social media.

The plan and the obstacles

Sanders called healthcare "a human right, not a privilege" and said Medicare for All is "now supported by 66 percent of the American people." That polling figure is his claim. No poll was cited in his statement.

The proposal covers a lot of ground. Lowering the age by ten years brings in a large group of people who now buy coverage elsewhere. Adding dental, vision and hearing broadens what Medicare pays for. Covering every child through 19 adds a new population.

The obstacle is not hidden. Any Democratic bill would still face President Trump's veto pen. Sanders's plan is also not yet a bill, and he has not said what it would cost or how it would be paid for.

Sanders is not the only voice in his party. STAT reported that there is "broad agreement among congressional Democrats" on rolling back the Medicaid cuts Trump championed and restoring the enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits that expired. Some newly elected Democrats want to go well beyond that and embrace full Medicare for All.

The idea of starting with children has a track record on the left. Matt Bruenig, founder of the People's Policy Project, wrote in 2020 that "Medicare for Kids is not a technically complicated proposal or even a very expensive proposal in terms of fiscal cost." He said the only question is "whether elected officials can summon the will to do it."

What Europe's systems show

Critics point overseas. In a piece in Reason headlined "Has He Looked at Europe?", the magazine argues that government-run systems deliver long waits and weak outcomes.

The numbers Reason cites for Britain are stark. The NHS waiting list for hospital treatment reached 7.4 million people in August, and the 18-week treatment target has not been met in more than a decade. Almost 40 percent of emergency patients wait longer than four hours.

Reason also cites reporting from Hyphen that 79,130 names came off the NHS waiting list between September 2024 and August 2025 because the patients died before reaching the front of the queue. It adds that the U.K. ranks near the bottom among comparable countries on five-year survival for breast, cervical, colorectal and lung cancers.

France does not escape the criticism. It spends 11.4 percent of GDP on healthcare, well above the OECD average, yet 4.1 percent of French residents report unmet healthcare needs, against an OECD average of 3.4 percent. Reason says only 60 percent of French residents are satisfied with the availability of quality care. The OECD average is 64 percent, and the U.S. figure is 75 percent.

On access to specialists, Reason cites OECD data from 2023: 42 percent of Americans waited at least a month for an appointment, compared with 62 percent in Britain and 65 percent in France.

There is a distinction the comparison has to carry. The NHS is a government-run system that owns and operates much of its care. Sanders's plan, as he laid it out, expands an existing federal insurance program to more age groups and more services. Whether his plan would produce NHS-style queues is a prediction, not a result anyone has measured.

The RFK Jr. question

Sanders also made news on healthcare leadership. On CNN's State of the Union on Sunday, he told Dana Bash he is "open to" impeaching Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

"The bottom line is we need a secretary of HHS who is concerned about the health and well-being of our kids and all Americans, not involved in crazy conspiracy theories," Sanders said. "So, I'm open to all ideas."

CNN identified Sanders as the senator set to become chair of the Senate HELP Committee. That gives him control of hearings and the agenda over Kennedy's department.

He did not announce an impeachment effort. Impeachment is a House process, and he said only that he is open to the idea.

What comes next

The immediate fight is inside the Democratic caucus. One camp wants the quick, practical fixes on Medicaid and ACA subsidies. Sanders wants a bolder first step that moves toward Medicare for All.

Even if Democrats unite, the Trump veto stands between any reconciliation bill and law. The open question is whether Democratic leaders put Sanders's Medicare-at-55 package on the table at all, or confine their first moves to undoing the Medicaid cuts and restoring the expired ACA credits.