Raphael Warnock: “I believe in healthcare. Your health--my mother told me a long time ago--was everything, so take care of your health. It…”

“I believe in healthcare. Your health--my mother told me a long time ago--was everything, so take care of your health. It is vital. It is essential. I believe that healthcare is a human right. It is certainly something that the wealthiest Nation on the planet and in the history of humankind can and ought to provide for all of its citizens. It is right, it is fair, but it is also smart. A healthy nation is a strong nation. Healthy children are ready to learn. That is why I have worked so hard and so long with my colleagues on this issue. As a matter of fact, long before I came to the Senate, I had been focused on this issue of healthcare, trying to get my home State of Georgia to expand. I keep preaching that sermon because right now, there are more than 500,000 Georgians who are in the healthcare coverage gap. I came here in 2017, to this place, not as a Senator but as a pastor and as an activist. I remember getting arrested, I believe in 2017, when there were major healthcare cuts on the table. As I began to make my argument and gather with other pastors in the Rotunda, the Capitol Police--very professionally, but they began to say to us: Pastors, you can't gather and pray in the Rotunda. We will have to arrest you. What they didn't understand is that I had already been arrested. My mind and my imagination had been arrested by this idea that surely the American Nation can do better than this. Healthcare is a human right.”