Political Quotes

“Mr. President, now, what this article points out is certainly not news to the people in America. In Vermont and all over this country, our people often have to wait months in order to get an appointment with a doctor; and in some cases, they have to travel very long distances to get the healthcare they need. And let us be clear: There is no debate upon this. Some people think we don't have to act on it now; let's do it next year, next year, following year. Wrong. The crisis is only going to get worse, and every day we delay it, it becomes even worse. Now, why is this happening? Well, there are a lot of reasons why. One of the reasons is that it turns out that the United States--despite all of our spending on healthcare--spends about half of what other nations do on primary healthcare. We spend approximately 7 percent; most of the country spends at least twice as much. And the absurdity of that situation is that everybody knows that ``an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure.'' And if there is anything that Senator Marshall and I are talking about, that is exactly what we are talking about. You spend money--we are spending money to save money. Keeping people healthy saves money. In other words, common sense tells us that if we can prevent disease, do a better job keeping our young people healthy, if people can access the medical care when they need it not when they are just very, very sick-- if we can do those things, we can keep them out of the hospital.…”