Bernie Sanders

What can Congress do to address this very serious issue? Let me just rattle off a few points, and give the microphone over to Senator Enzi.

The expansion of the Community Health Center program to new sites and for expansion of services at existing locations will continue until 2015.

Thank you very much, Dr. Mullan.

If we can train physicians from those rural communities, they tend to stay in rural communities.

We have significantly increased funding for the National Health Service Corps, which says to somebody that if you are graduating medical school $200,000 in debt, we are going to help you address that debt.

In my view and, I think, the view of all of the experts who have studied the issue, primary care is intended to be, and should be, the foundation of the U.S. health care system.

I want to thank Ranking Member Mike Enzi for his work. He and I have worked together on a number of issues over the years.

If you have more primary care physicians, that will improve access.

Thanks to the leadership of Senator Sanders and the ACA, the NHSC has doubled its annual appropriation from $150,000,000 to $300,000,000.

It is really important that we not throw seniors and Medicare under the bus because we have failed to address the real problem in health care.

Vermont is a rural State. I know something about rural problems. His State is a lot more rural, so we will see how we can go forward together.

First and foremost, clearly, we must address the issue of primary care reimbursement rates.

In our country today, I think as many people know, we spend almost twice as much as do the people of any other country per capita on health care.

I am as of 28 January 2013. I believe I have a solid, not perfect, but a solid, dependable portal-to-decision system in place to be able to get more and more people on it, to be able to check it.

I think it's a class issue, too, Mr. Chairman. I think to some degree psychiatry is something that is accessible for urban, upper income folks.

The United States of America is the only country in the industrialized world that does not have a national healthcare system.

If our goal is to make sure that mental healthcare is available to all people who need it, how many thousands and thousands of mental health practitioners does this country need?

I worked very hard to double the funding of community health centers and triple the funding for the National Health Service Corps.

The reality is, right now, that we have a primary healthcare system which is a disaster.

When you don't have a system, you're not prioritizing.

We are not responding to the needs of the American people if there is not an EPA Administrator.

When people have honest difference of opinion, we debate it.

I will not accept cuts to Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid.

Unemployment is much too high. But as Senator Murray indicated and as Senator Burr made the point, it is especially high for returning veterans.

Our goal must be justice, making sure that those people who are entitled to the claims get them.