Last week, the Trump administration said in a court filing it supported scrapping Obamacare in its entirety, having taken to the courts to try and dismantle the act having failed to do so via Congress.

Mr Sanders, 77, who is leading the polls of Democratic presidential candidates who have formally declared they are running, said the move by the government would have a disastrous affect of the cost of health insurance for people.

“If Trump gets his way, the cost of health insurance…will be so high that many people literally will not be able to afford it. Thousands of people will literally die. That’s Trump’s health insurance plan,” said the Vermont senator.

Speaking to CBS News, he added: “My plan is just a little bit different. I think we should join the result of the industrialised world, guarantee health care to all people as a right.”

Faces of Obamacare: The health scheme at the centre of the shutdown Show all 3 1 /3 Faces of Obamacare: The health scheme at the centre of the shutdown Faces of Obamacare: The health scheme at the centre of the shutdown obama.jpg Martin Wolske, 49 and his family, Illinois. His son Eric, 23 (bottom right, dark hair) was recently badly injured in a motorcycle accident. Faces of Obamacare: The health scheme at the centre of the shutdown obama2.jpg Tracy Russo, 31, Washington DC Faces of Obamacare: The health scheme at the centre of the shutdown obama3.jpg Kevin McCollum, 41, and his wife Melissa, 40, Texas

Mr Sanders, who is seeing the party’s nomination for the second time, was an early proponent of “Medicare for All” – a proposal to extend the national health programme that currently provides insurance to those aged 65 and older and some people who are disabled, to everyone

It has emerged as one of the key planks of many of those seeking the Democratic nomination, and is supported by progressive Democrats such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

1989 interview shows Bernie Sanders warning of global ecological disaster

Mr Sanders said on Sunday he would introduce his latest proposal before Congress “within the next couple of weeks”. “When we do that, what we understand is that it is just not acceptable that 30m Americans have no health insurance and even more are underinsured with high deductibles and high co-payments,” he said.

He also said if elected he would reduce the cost of medicines – something Mr Trump vowed to do but has so far failed to make any progress on.