Bernie Sanders to host Medicare for All national town hall meeting with leading digital outlets

"We are going outside the traditional media to change that, to talk about the real issues affecting the American people."

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Why is the U.S. the only developed major country that doesn’t offer healthcare to all Americans?

While 60 percent of Americans want to expand Medicare to provide health insurance to everyone, according to Bernie Sanders’ website, many know little to nothing about how a Medicare-for-all, single-payer health care system would work in the U.S.

So on Jan. 23, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will partner with digital outlets NowThis, The Young Turks and ATTN: to hold a nationally televised town meeting and engage in an in-depth conversation about healthcare, an issue that matters most to many Americans.

“For the first time in American history we will be holding a nationally televised town meeting on Medicare for all,” Sanders said in a statement on his website. “The United States is the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to all people, but amazingly there has not been one network town hall to discuss why our system lags so far behind every other industrialized country. We are going outside the traditional media to change that, to talk about the real issues affecting the American people.”

The 90-minute event, which will steam live on Sanders‘, NowThis‘, ATTN:‘s and The Young Turks‘ social media channels, will start at 7 p.m. at the Capitol Visitor Center’s Congressional Auditorium in Washington, D.C. and is open to the public.

Sanders, who introduced the Medicare for All Act last year, along with leading health care experts will answer questions “about Medicare for all from people around the country, discuss what it means to practice medicine in America when patients cannot afford the health care they need, talk about the economic and business impact of single payer and hear international perspectives on how universal health care can be achieved,” according to Sanders’ website.

Since healthcare can be a very complicated topic, the town hall meeting will help explain its affects as it pertains to people’s “actual, everday lives,” Mike Vainisi, head of editorial at ATTN: said in a statement of Sanders’ website.

“We’re excited for our audience to hear Sen. Sanders describe his plan and face the tough questions people usually ask about Medicare for All,” Vainisi said.

The use of the three networks’ streaming services will show Sanders taking audience and online questions in a breakthrough multimedia special that is expected to have a larger viewing audience than if it ran on a major network, according to Sanders in a recent interview.

“NowThis is proud to work with these other outlets to reach an enormous young audience across social media and provide them with the opportunity to directly address Senator Sanders and ask questions of him and leading health care and economic experts,” said Versha Sharma, the managing editor of NowThis.

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