Bernie Sanders: “today in the United States of America there are 47 million people who are without health insurance and 35 million…”

“today in the United States of America there are 47 million people who are without health insurance and 35 million Americans who are completely without access to the most basic health care services. As a result, in the richest country in the world, 18,000 Americans die each year because their basic health care needs are not met. Despite the fact that we spend twice as much per person on health care than any other industrialized nation, Americans have a lower life expectancy and a higher infant mortality rate than Canada, Japan, and most of Europe. We are also faced with an alarming dental care crisis in this country. The Surgeon General has reported that tooth decay has become the single most common chronic childhood disease in this country--five times more common than asthma and seven times more common than hay fever. Surveys have also shown that dental problems cause children to miss more than 51 million hours of school and adults to miss more than 164 million hours of work each year. This health care and dental care crisis bears down particularly hard on those who live in rural communities where there are few local health care centers and patients must travel many miles to seek the care that they need. Those living in inner-city neighborhoods also often have difficulty receiving the care they need because they lack health insurance and have no means to pay for regular doctors visits.”