Bernie Sanders

What would it mean to this country if in every community in America, people could walk into their doctor's office when they needed to and get the broad counseling that they needed regardless of income?

Why is it conceivable that in America--and in West Virginia among other places--women are actually living shorter lives than used to be the case?

I think, as Senator Warren indicated, we have a chicken and egg situation.

Investing in those programs and cutting back on the incidence of diabetes may actually not only ease human suffering, but save money as well.

I am chairman of the Veterans Committee, and the V.A. actually does a fairly good job in addressing some of these issues.

I think that is a good point.

But as I looked at that map, sorry to interrupt you, if I look at that map, there is a lot of red in the southeastern part of the country.

I think what some of you are telling us is that that may not be the wisest course of action for some people.

The health of working-class and middle-class, and even upper-class Americans also rises and falls with our socioeconomic status.

The stress pathways independent of those other factors, that operate really through neural endocrine mechanisms and neuro-immunological mechanisms that really puts the body under stress

The United States has, by far, the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on earth; it is 22 percent.

If they do not have access to healthcare, if they do not have access to education, if they do not have access to jobs and affordable housing, we end up paying not only in terms of human suffering and the shortening of life expectancy, but…

The stress of poverty is a death sentence which results in significantly shorter life expectancy.

HRSA, HHS, announced they were going to spend $150 million in starting up 236 new community health centers.

Well, it is true in Vermont, as well, by the way.

I am one of those who believe, with Dr. Berwick, who used to run the Center for Medicare and Medicaid services, that waste is theft.

I have worked very hard, with some success, to expand community health centers in the State of Vermont and throughout this country.

You made the point earlier, that just programs like the TRIO program or Upward Bound giving kids the opportunity of even knowing what a college is.

It is actually in many cases, more than one-third; it is almost double what other countries are spending.

Thank you so much, Senator Warren, for staying here throughout.

Many of them do an extraordinary job, and they are all different.

I cannot underscore enough the level of frustration veterans have with VA's disability claims system.

We also know that the VA has a number of problems that this Committee is going to continue working hard to try to improve.

In my view as I have stated many times, I think VA does a very good job in providing quality, cost-effective health care to our veterans.

The bottom line is you have a huge bureaucracy and a very large budget. I think the average veteran in this country believes VA is doing a good job, in terms of health care at least but we can do better.