Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernard (Bernie) SandersSanders to oppose Pompeo's nomination for State Dem challenger: ‘I don’t think that Ted Cruz is an a--hole’ March for Our Lives to leave empty seats for lawmakers at town halls MORE (I-Vt.) said Sunday that he will “absolutely” introduce legislation on single-payer healthcare now that the Senate GOP’s bill to repeal ObamaCare has failed. 
 
 “Of course we are, we’re tweaking the final points of the bill and we’re figuring out how we can mount a national campaign to bring people together,” Sanders told Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union. 
 
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 Sanders promised to introduce a “Medicare for All” proposal once the debate over repealing ObamaCare ended. He is one of several progressive lawmakers who back the healthcare model that has divided Democratic lawmakers. 
 
 It’s unclear exactly when he will introduce the legislation. The Senate has two weeks remaining in sessions. 
 
 Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) attached an amendment to one version of the ObamaCare repeal bill Wednesday that would have created a single-payer healthcare system in the U.S. Daines does not support a single-payer system but used the model as a political maneuver. 
 
 Sanders’s spokesman slammed the amendment as a “sham” at the time and said Sanders and other Democrats would refuse to vote on the measure. 

 Story highlights Sanders said he will push single payer legislation 
 
 He said there was still 'plenty of time' to decide on 2020 
 
 Washington (CNN) Two days after Republicans in the Senate failed to roll back Obamacare, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said there should be a government-funded health insurance option "in every state in this country." 
 
 "If people don't like the private insurance that they're getting, they should have a Medicare-type public option available in every state in this country," Sanders said on CNN's "State of the Union." 
 
 Sanders, an independent senator who caucuses with Democrats and became a member of the Senate Democratic leadership following his presidential bid last year, has long made a call for universal coverage one of his key objectives. 
 
 Asked on Sunday if he would follow through on his pledge to submit single-payer legislation, in which the government would shoulder the health care costs for all, Sanders said, "Absolutely, of course we are." 
 
 As part of this new push for single-payer legislation, Sanders said his team was looking at a way to build a popular consensus around health care as a right, regardless of income level. 
 
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– As Senate Republicans go back to the drawing board on the proposed Obamacare repeal, Sen. Bernie Sanders has swung the national healthcare debate to the other side of the pendulum. The Vermont Independent says he’ll “absolutely” introduce a single-payer bill to the Senate, reports the Hill. Sanders didn’t give a timeline for the proposed bill, but told CNN’s Jake Tapper on State of the Union that, “We’re tweaking the final points of the bill and we’re figuring out how we can mount a national campaign to bring people together.” According to CNN, the senator admitted that the Republican-controlled Congress wouldn’t be the only obstacle in passing such a bill. Special interest groups all but sank Vermont’s bid to enact a single-payer system, he said, and would make such a proposal difficult to pass. "Taking on the insurance companies and the drug companies, taking on Wall Street, taking on a lot of very powerful forces that make billions of dollars a year from the current health care system is not going to be easy,” he said, “and it's not going to take place until millions of people get involved in this struggle.” Per the Hill, a spokesperson for Sanders called a single-payer amendment attached to the ObamaCare repeal Wednesday a “sham.” President Trump tweeted support for repeal Sunday morning, writing, “Don't give up Republican Senators, the World is watching: Repeal & Replace...and go to 51 votes (nuke option), get Cross State Lines & more.” But Sanders isn’t taking the bait: "If people don't like the private insurance that they're getting, they should have a Medicare-type public option available in every state in this country.”