Bernie Sanders

A single-payer health care system will save the average middle-class family thousands of dollars a year.

We are spending far, far, far more than any other country on earth.

The function of insurance companies is not to provide quality care to people. It is to make as much money as they possibly can.

I think it is great that we have the Governors here today, and we should do more of that.

Increasingly the American people believe that is the case.

Why is it that in the United States of America we are the only major country on earth that does not guarantee health care to all people as a right?

It is vital that we continue to build the behavioral health workforce pipeline.

Until we have a vaccine that FDA has licensed as safe and effective, our best efforts must be focused on protecting expectant mothers from being exposed.

I will definitely seek counsel and intelligence from the field, including from Departmental offices as well as, and perhaps especially, from State and local public health agencies.

I have a meeting that I have to get to. I want to summarize this. My friends from Oregon and Michigan can correct me if I am wrong. We are looking at a bill that came from the House and various proposals being introduced in the Senate…

If I could, let me ask my colleagues from Oregon or Michigan maybe to speculate here. If the House bill were to be successful--and we are going to do everything in our ability to make sure it is not successful--and Medicaid were severely…

Correct me if I am wrong, but my recollection is that in the House bill there were $300 billion in tax breaks going to the top 1 percent at exactly the same time that 23 million Americans were thrown off of their health insurance; is that…

I have asked my colleague from Oregon a little bit about some of the cruel and devastating impacts this legislation would have, but we have to be honest and acknowledge that there are some beneficiaries in this legislation as well. Would…

And a massive cut in Medicaid would be devastating to those families who have loved ones in nursing homes?

I think it is important to repeat that because this is not something that I think most Americans are aware of. Medicaid now pays, as I understand it, for two out of three nursing home beds in this country; is that correct?

But it is not only older workers because we have as an aging population more and more people in nursing homes. Would my friend from Oregon describe what happens under this legislation if somebody has a mom or a dad in a nursing home…

Now, while the AARP and other senior groups have not been able to testify, would my friend from Oregon tell me what their views are on this particular legislation because of its impact on older workers and seniors in general?

Would my colleague please repeat that. I think it is important for older Americans to hear this. We had a candidate running for President of the United States by the name of Donald Trump, and he ran all over this country and said he was…

Let me ask my friend from Oregon: What kind of testimony have we heard as to the impact of this legislation on older working people, in terms of what it might mean in increased premiums? Have we heard much discussion? Has the AARP, which…

In other words, this bill is not saying to doctors: What will this mean to your patients? What happens if 32 million people are thrown off of medication? How many of them will get sick? How many of them will die? No testimony. How about…

Right, so if my understanding is correct--and I am quite sure it is--the American Medical Association, which is not one of the great progressive groups in America but the group that represents the physicians in this country, A, they have…

There have been no hearings on a bill that impacts one- sixth of the American economy and every single American. Now, let me ask my friend from Oregon this. Obviously, before my Republican colleagues would go forward on radical legislation…

One-sixth of the American economy is over $3 trillion every single year. Now, when we are dealing with legislation that impacts virtually every American, over $3 trillion every year, would my friend from Oregon please tell me this--and I…

Our friend from Oregon is pointing out that this legislation would impact virtually every American because, in one way or another, we all interface with the healthcare system. I would ask my friend to confirm: This legislation would impact…

I think it sends a message to every member of Trump's administration that you have an unstable guy at the top, who will turn on you for whatever reason.