NEWS: In Remarks to Advocates, Sanders P…

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the new chairman of the Senate’s Overall health, Education and learning, Labor and Pensions Committee, on Wednesday in the course of remarks to Advocates for Group Wellbeing proposed a historic expansion of group well being centers. 

“We have to increase these plans so that just about every American has the potential to access the most important overall health care, dental treatment, psychological wellness counseling, and minimal-value prescription drugs that they desperately have to have,” Sanders mentioned, citing a lot of of the positive aspects of community wellness facilities to taxpayers and patients. 

Sanders’ remarks, as prepared for shipping and delivery, are beneath:

Permit me thank the Advocates for Local community Wellness for inviting me right here right now and for all of the excellent function that you are accomplishing.

I really do not believe I have to have to notify any person in this home that we have a health care disaster in The us that we have received to handle.

In The usa now, 85 million Individuals are uninsured or below-insured, around 500,000 men and women go bankrupt every single calendar year for the reason that of medically related financial debt, and around 68,000 persons die every single year simply because they are unable to pay for the well being care they desperately want.

We expend more than twice as a great deal for every-capita for well being care than other main nations – nearly $13,000 for each and every gentleman, female, and baby in the state. And nevertheless, we have worse wellbeing outcomes and reduce daily life expectancy than most formulated nations – although non-public wellness coverage corporations make in excess of $60 billion a calendar year in earnings and pay their CEOs exorbitant compensation packages.

We spend, by significantly, the highest charges in the entire world for prescription medicines. In spite of billions in govt investment decision in prescription drug investigation and advancement, just about just one out of 4 Individuals are not able to pay for the medication their health professionals prescribe.

Now, I come about to feel that the alternative to this crisis is to be a part of every other important country on earth and acknowledge that health care is a human right, not a privilege. But I am not naïve. And the greatest way to attain that target is by means of a Medicare-for-All, Solitary-payer system. Sadly, although tens of tens of millions of American agree with me on that problem, we are much from a the vast majority in the Senate. We have no Republican assist for Medicare for All and I’m not certain that I could get fifty percent of the Democrats on that bill.

Nonetheless, it’s very important that we continue to drive for a Medicare for All method and educate the American men and women about the dysfunctionality of the present system. And which is why in a number of months I will be introducing laws for Medicare for All.

But though we cannot realize Medicare for All at this moment, this is what I do think. I believe that that, with your assist, we can and we must make most important health and fitness care offered to each guy, female and youngster in The united states by means of a big expansion of neighborhood wellbeing facilities in The us.

In my check out, group health centers are a extremely dazzling and powerful location in the midst of our broken overall health care procedure.

The natural beauty of group health centers is that they are democratically run by the people on the ground to deal with the overall health care requires in their very own towns and towns.

I am very pleased to say that in the past 15 many years, operating with each other, we have drastically expanded the access of group overall health facilities.

Currently, in America, 30 million males, women of all ages, and kids – such as 400,000 veterans – obtain superior good quality main well being care at neighborhood well being centers in 14,000 neighborhoods through the United States.

In my own state of Vermont, just about one out of just about every a few people today are now receiving their primary healthcare as a result of a community overall health heart throughout 73 sites – one thing that Vermonters are quite very pleased of.

And, as all of you know, these facilities do additional than just give main healthcare.

They also offer dental care, an difficulty that is too usually disregarded when we discuss about the health care disaster.

They supply psychological health counseling, which is more critical now than it has ever been for the reason that of the opioid and heroin epidemic our state is going through, and the unbelievable stresses prompted by the pandemic.

Equally significant, they deliver small-expense prescription drugs at a time when so several Us citizens cannot manage the medications they need to have.

And, these health centers deliver this treatment no matter of a person’s insurance standing, bank account, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity or nationality.

That is what neighborhood well being centers do, and they do it effectively, and they do it price tag proficiently.

And that is why community health facilities have traditionally savored bi-partisan aid – and that guidance continues to this day.

President George W. Bush reported again in 2005 for illustration: “I’m a huge backer of expanding group wellbeing centers to every single lousy county in The united states.” And he was followed by Barack Obama who also thought really strongly in neighborhood well being centers.

But in this article is the problem. There are quite a few Republicans who will convey to you that when they are strong supporters of these centers, they are also pretty anxious about the deficit and believe in fiscal obligation.

Nicely let’s be clear: Neighborhood overall health facilities not only save life, they also preserve cash.

And our job is to make it apparent to Congress that if you are nervous about the deficit you must help an expansion of group wellness facilities because just about every and every single yr, local community health and fitness facilities preserve the health care system $24 billion. How?

It happens due to the fact local community health and fitness facilities lessen the need for pricey emergency space visits and hospitalizations, they fight disorder outbreaks and they are on the frontlines in addressing our nation’s opioid crisis. 

In truth, it is at the very least $2,300 fewer pricey for a Medicaid patient to obtain key well being care at a local community overall health center than at one more provider.

It is more than $1,200 less high priced for a Medicare client to obtain the care they will need at a local community well being center than at another service provider.

Community health centers not only help you save life, not only relieve human suffering, but they help you save billions for the federal federal government. They preserve Medicare revenue. They help save Medicaid dollars. And they preserve our entire overall health care process revenue since they keep away from the need to have for clients to go to costly emergency rooms and non-public hospitals.

Further, community health and fitness centers also include about $55 billion to the economy and provide jobs to much more than 235,000 people each individual and every single 12 months.

And let us also be clear. Not only do we have to substantially extend funding for the group well being centre application, we have also acquired to address the severe lack of most important treatment doctors, nurses, mental health and fitness suppliers and dentists in our region.

Local community wellness facilities will do no one any very good if they do not have the healthcare workers necessary to handle their sufferers.

In America now, virtually 100 million of our people today dwell in a main care desert, virtually 70 million stay in a dental treatment desert and some 158 million Us citizens – almost half the population dwell in a mental health care desert.

For the duration of the pandemic, just about 1 out of just about every 5 well being treatment workers, such as 100,000 nurses, stop their jobs and a further third have contemplated undertaking so. 

Around the subsequent 10 years, our state faces a scarcity of around 120,000 medical practitioners – which includes a large lack of most important care medical practitioners.

Around the future two many years, it is approximated that we will require up to 450,000 a lot more nurses.

Right now, it is believed that we need about 100,000 a lot more dentists.

And in America today, working day, there is a lack of additional than 4 million mental well being company vendors.

That is why I consider we want a significant expansion of the Nationwide Overall health Services Corps application — the plan that provides scholarships and financial debt forgiveness for physicians, nurses, dentists, and mental well being companies, who are organized to perform in our nation’s most underserved areas.

Without the need of financial debt forgiveness, it is incredibly tricky to get new medical practitioners to pick out primary treatment — an area of medication that does not pay out the form of money as a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills or a neurosurgeon in New York Metropolis.

But we have got to do a whole lot far more than that. We also need to have to considerably extend Instructing Health and fitness Centers, the Nurse Corps, the Nurse Faculty Bank loan Program, and the Graduate Health care Instruction method, amid several other points.

All through the very last Congress, as the Chairman of the Price range Committee, I was extremely proud to assistance lead the energy to triple funding for the National Wellbeing Service Corps and virtually double funding – $7.6 billion – for group health and fitness facilities as component of the American Rescue System.

This Congress, as Chairman of the Wellness, Schooling, Labor and Pensions Committee, I appear forward to performing with all of you to develop these programs even even further.

As you know, if Congress does very little, some of these plans will run out of funding on September 30th of this yr. We certainly can’t let that to happen.

As an alternative, we should increase these systems so that just about every American has the ability to accessibility the most important wellness treatment, dental care, mental wellbeing counseling, and very low-cost prescription medicines that they desperately need.

We will have to allow each pregnant woman in America to get the prenatal treatment they need in get to have healthful babies.

We need to enable every person in The usa who is addicted to opioids to acquire the procedure they desperately want.

We must allow each American to receive the prescription medications their medical professionals prescribe at a price they can find the money for.

We should give community wellness centers the funding and means they will need to use much more key care physicians, nurses, dentists, and psychological health and fitness counselors who continue to keep these facilities likely.

And I appear forward to working with all of you to make that a fact.

Thank you all pretty considerably.