Bernie Sanders acknowledges the need to ‘improve’ Obamacare

Sen. Bernard Sanders said Tuesday that the motion to proceed on the repeal of the Affordable Care Act needs to be “defeated,” but acknowledge the law needs some changes.

“What should happen is this motion to proceed should be defeated,” Mr. Sanders, Vermont independent, said on MSNBC. “We need to defeat it. We need to take it back to committee.”

Mr. Sanders acknowledged that the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, needs to be improved, but said he would not vote to proceed on Tuesday’s vote to take the discussion to the floor.

“No question that Obamacare is far from perfect, but in [Senate Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell’s own state, the number of uninsured when down from 20 percent to 7 percent,” Mr. Sanders said. “I think we ought to improve the Affordable Care Act, not destroy it.”

Senate Republicans are expected to vote Tuesday on whether to take up Obamacare’s repeal plan to the floor.