BURLINGTON, Vt., Oct. 13 – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement Friday after President Donald Trump halted cost-sharing reductions that help pay out-of-pocket health care costs of low-income people and ordered potentially sweeping changes in the nation’s insurance system, including sales of cheaper policies with fewer benefits and fewer protections for consumers:

“Amazingly, we have a president who is trying to destroy the American health care system. At a time when millions of Americans remain uninsured or underinsured, President Trump’s decision to sabotage the Affordable Care Act will substantially raise health care costs for the American people and lead to lower quality coverage. Trump’s action is clear proof that he was never interested in improving health care. His only goal has been to destroy the Affordable Care Act. 

“Trump’s decision means that in Vermont, 12,000 people will be impacted and the state will lose $12 million of federal support.

“The American people deserve better. Now is the time to go forward – not backward. Short term, Congress must work to improve the Affordable Care Act to lower costs, insure more people and reduce the price of prescription drugs. Long term, we must go forward and join nearly every other major country by guaranteeing health care as a right through a Medicare-for-all program.”