Senator Bernie Sanders chose to spend his time on an aid committee to discuss one of the most urgent issues in the country.
Sanders discussed the health care crisis that the reconciliation law signed by Trump is expected to cause.
Sen. Sanders said:
There is no doubt that cyber security and protecting the privacy of the health care data of Americans are important issues that we have to deal with.
But, Mr President, let me be very clear. That is not the issue that is now in the heads of the American people. What people are worried about is the catastrophic impact that the Reconciliation Act adopted last week will have on the health and well -being of the American people. And that is the problem that I will be focused on today.
That legislation, adopted with one mood here in the Senate, will make the greatest cutback for Medicaid in American history to pay for the greatest tax benefits for billionaires in American history.
At a time when our current health care system has been broken, dysfunctional and cruel – 85 million today uninsured or underinsured. This account will make a terrible situation even worse.
This legislation will cut Medicaid and the affordable care act with more than $ 1.1 trillion.
The non -party -bound Congressional Budget Office has estimated that this bill, together with the expiry of the improved Premium tax credits, will lead to 17 million people losing their health insurance.
Researchers from the Yale School of Public Health and Health Care economists from the University of Pennsylvania have discovered that this health care policy would lead to more than 50,000 people in our country dying unnecessarily every year. That is what happens if you can’t get to a doctor.
I am happy that one of the main researchers of this report, Dr. Alison Galvani, here today is with us to talk more about that study.
Mr. Chairman: It is not a Rocket Science. You are a doctor, you know this. If people do not have access to health care, if they cannot go to a doctor when needed, people will suffer and tens of thousands will die. It happens today and it is only getting worse.
Make no mistake: this bill is a death sentence for working class and Americans with a low income.
Furthermore, as a result of this bill, more than 300 national hospitals are now running the risk of completely closing or reducing their services considerably. That is not my estimate. That is what the Center for Health Services Research has estimated at the University of North Carolina.
And we are starting to see all the devastating impact that this bill will have in the countryside of America: the Curtis Medical Center in the southwestern Nebraska has already announced that it will be closed because it cannot resist the cuts against Medicid in this bill.
It is not only national hospitals that are now in crisis as a result of this legislation.
According to a recent study by the American Health Care Association, as a result of this bill, 27% of the nursing homes have indicated that they will be forced to close their doors and 58% will have to reduce the staff. And they are not just nursing homes.
Researchers in the health care of the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University have discovered that this bill will be a disaster for health centers for the community.
They have estimated that as a result of the approval of this bill, more than 40% of the sites for the community’s health center will be closed. Nowadays there are more than 15,000 Community Health Center clinics throughout America. This can lead to the closing of around 9,000 of them.
And they are not just community centers, they are not just nursing homes and they are not just individuals.
This legislation will considerably increase the uninsured rate in every state in this country.
As a result of this bill, the uninsured rate in my own state would rise from 3.3% to 6%.
In Louisiana, the state of the chairman, the uninsured rate will increase from 6.7% to 12.4%.
In Florida, the uninsured rate will increase from 10.4% to 18.8%.
In Texas, the second largest state in this country, the uninsured rate will rise to 20% – in the United States, in the richest country in the history of the world.
Mr. President, this is a problem that must be explained to the American people and I am looking forward to discussing it with all our panel members.
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Republicans want to pretend that 17 million Americans are kicked off from their health care, as usual. Now that the Gop has caused the number of uninsured people in the United States, they can go back to keeping hearings on other topics.
The American people will not go further and forget what Republicans have done.
Democrats and their allies such as Bernie Sanders will not allow the crisis that Republicans have created to be forgotten.
Trump and his party want people who lose food and health care are forgotten. It is up to everyone to ensure that it does not happen.
What do you think of Senator Sanders’ comments? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
