Our Revolution: on Health Care
Bernie Sanders:
Focus healthcare on health instead of profits
The United States must join the rest of the industrialized world and guarantee health care to every man, woman, and child through a Medicare for All single-payer system.It has never made sense to me that our health care system is primarily designed
to make huge profits for multibillion-dollar insurance companies, drug companies, hospitals, and medical equipment suppliers. Health care is not a commodity. It is a human right.
The goal of a sane health care system should be to keep people well, not to make stock holders rich.
Our current system is the most expensive, bureaucratic, wasteful, and ineffective in the world.
While the health care industry makes hundreds of billions a year in profit, tens of millions of Americans have totally inadequate coverage, and many of our people suffer and die unnecessarily.
Source: Our Revolution, by Bernie Sanders, p. 318-319
Nov 15, 2016
Bernie Sanders:
Don't ignore prescription drug affordability
When we talk about the high cost of health care, we cannot ignore the crisis of the outrageously high cost of prescription drugs. In America, people get much sicker than they should, and sometimes die because they cannot afford the medicine that they
need. Sometimes, in order to pay for their medicine, they end up lacking the money they need to provide for other basic needs. The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most politically powerful industries in the country and spends endless amounts
of money on lobbying and campaign contributions. The pharmaceutical industry has spent more than $3 billion on lobbying since 1998.
This is $1 billion more than the insurance industry, which came in second place in lobbying expenditures.
The pharmaceutical industry, because of its great power, rarely loses legislative fights. It has effectively purchased the Congress, and there are Republican and Democratic leaders who support its every effort.
Source: Our Revolution, by Bernie Sanders, p. 326-8
Nov 15, 2016
Bernie Sanders:
Lack of affordable dental care is part of healthcare crisis
When people talk about "health care", they are usually referring to a doctor's medical care. But health care is more than that. Largely ignored is the reality that we have a major dental crisis in this country. Tens of millions of Americans are unable
to afford the dental care they need. They suffer with painful toothaches. They get teeth extracted because it's cheaper than getting the tooth properly treated, a plight I suffered when I was a young man. Without good teeth, people are unable to
properly digest the food they eat, which can lead to other medical problems.Bad teeth can not only lead to pain and illness, but it has an economic consequence. Try applying for a job when your front teeth are missing and you can't smile.
Having bad or missing teeth makes it clear to the world that you are poor, which makes it harder for you to find employment, which perpetuates the cycle of poverty. And for kids, toothaches are one of the major causes of school absenteeism.
Source: Our Revolution, by Bernie Sanders, p. 329
Nov 15, 2016
Bernie Sanders:
Mental Health: people need more affordable treatments
There is the extraordinary crisis that we face in terms of mental health care. As I traveled around the country, it became clear to me that people were concerned about this issue. Whenever I talked about the need for a revolution in
mental health treatments, it would get a strong response. People often knew someone--maybe themselves--struggling with drug addition or a serous mental disorder and unable to find help. The crisis in mental health impacts every area of our lives.
Source: Our Revolution, by Bernie Sanders, p. 330
Nov 15, 2016
Bernie Sanders:
Federally-run single-payer program with mental/dental
A federally administered single-payer health care program means comprehensive coverage for all Americans. This plan will cover the entire continuum of health care, from inpatient to outpatient care; preventive to emergency care; primary to
specialty care, including long-term and palliative care; vision, hearing, and oral health care; mental health and substance abuse services; as well as prescription medications, medical equipment, supplies, diagnostics, and treatments.
Patients will be able to choose a health care provider without worrying about whether that provider is in-network and will be able to get the care they need
without having to read any fine print or trying to figure out how they can afford the out-of-pocket costs.
Source: Our Revolution, by Bernie Sanders, p. 334
Nov 15, 2016
Bernie Sanders:
1999: Took Vermonters to Canada for low-cost Rx drugs
One of my longtime fights has been against the greed of the pharmaceutical industry, which charges our people, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. In 1999, I became the first member of Congress to take constituents over the
Canadian border to purchase low-cost prescription drugs. With tears in their eyes, working-class women, struggling against breast cancer, were able to purchase the same brand-name medicine they were using in
Vermont for one-tenth of the price in Montreal. After my trip, many other members of Congress did the same thing.
Over the years, millions of Americans have purchased affordable prescription drugs in Canada.
Source: Our Revolution, by Bernie Sanders, p. 43
Nov 15, 2016
Bernie Sanders:
Real issue is healthcare at all, for rural poor
In Mississippi I learned why health care must be a right of all people, and that must happen as soon as possible. I met with a group of African-American health care workers in the Jackson-Hinds Comprehensive Health Center in Jackson MS. They described
the dismal health care conditions for poor people in that state and how there were entire counties there that had NO doctors. Think about it: In the USA, entire counties that have no doctors.In Mississippi, it also turned out that many people,
despite being poor, were ineligible for Medicaid because of stringent and unfair state requirements. My Republican colleagues in Congress tell me, over and over again, that we have the "greatest" health care system in the world. Really? In Mississippi,
and in many other areas of the country, there are counties in low-income areas where thousands of people have no health insurance at all and, for those who do, there is no access to medical care at all. That system doesn't sound so "great" to me.
Source: Our Revolution, by Bernie Sanders, p. 57-8
Nov 15, 2016
David Koch:
No tax-supported health services, including Medicare
Here are some more of the ideas David Koch ran on [in his 1980 bid for as the Libertarian Party Vice-Presidential nominee]:- "We favor the abolition of Medicare and Medicaid programs."
- "We oppose any compulsory health insurance or tax-supported
plan to provide health services, including those which finance abortion services."
- "We oppose all government welfare, relief projects, and 'aid to the poor' programs."
Source: Our Revolution, by Bernie Sanders, p.200
Nov 15, 2016
Page last updated: May 04, 2019