[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 118 (Thursday, July 13, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3981-S3982]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Healthcare Legislation

  Mr. SANDERS. Madam President, I wanted to say a few words about the 
new Republican healthcare plan that was just announced a few hours ago. 
While there are some modest changes in it, the truth of the matter is 
that this plan remains a disaster. It remains an embarrassment. I think 
the indication that it is an embarrassment is that with legislation 
that would impact about one-sixth of the American economy of over $3 
trillion a year--legislation that, because it is healthcare, impacts 
virtually everybody--there has not been one public hearing on this 
legislation. It has all been done behind closed doors. Honestly, no 
matter what one's view may be on where we as a Nation should go with 
healthcare, whether you like this bill or you don't like this bill, I 
just don't know how someone can seriously say that we don't have to 
hear from physicians about the impact of this legislation on their 
ability to treat their patients. I just don't know how you do that--or 
that we don't have to hear from hospitals.
  I come from a rural State. What will the impact of this legislation 
and the massive $800 billion cuts on Medicaid do to rural hospitals all 
over the United States? There is some belief that many rural hospitals 
in areas where they are desperately needed will be forced to shut down. 
Is that the truth? That is what I hear, but I can't tell you 
definitively because there hasn't been a hearing on that issue. So I 
don't know how we go forward with legislation without having 
administrators from rural hospitals coming before the committee--I am 
on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee--or the Finance 
Committee to answer that question.
  The Presiding Officer comes from a State and I come from a State 
where we have a major opioid crisis. It is devastating the entire 
country. What will this bill do to our ability to prevent and treat the 
opioid crisis, which is decimating this country from one end of America 
to the other? What happens if you cut $800 billion in Medicaid? How 
will people get the treatment they need today--which is inadequate? In 
my State, it is inadequate. I don't think there is a State in the 
country that today is providing the necessary treatment or prevention 
capabilities to deal with this opioid and heroin crisis, which is 
ravaging America. What impact will an $800 billion cut have on that? I 
understand there is some additional money going into opioid treatment, 
but how do you do that without the framework of allowing people the 
access to get healthcare? If you get thrown off of healthcare, what 
will the additional opioid money mean? I think not a whole lot.
  In this bill, there are still hundreds of billions of dollars--
several hundred billion dollars--in tax breaks to large health 
insurance companies, to drug companies, to medical device companies, 
and to tanning salons. As a nation, are we really interested in giving 
significant tax breaks to large insurance companies and then throwing 
children who have disabilities off of the Medicaid they currently 
receive? Is that what the American people want? I don't think they do.
  I have to tell my colleagues that this Republican legislation, as the 
Presiding Officer knows, has been opposed by almost every major 
national healthcare organization in the country, including the American 
Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, the AARP, which 
is the largest senior group in America, the American Psychiatric 
Association, the American pediatrics association. Virtually all of the 
major healthcare groups are saying that this legislation would be a 
disaster for the people they serve.
  Just last night we had a teleconference townhall in Vermont and we 
had some 15,000, 16,000 people on the phone. The calls that were coming 
in were very painful calls. I almost didn't want to be honest in 
answering the calls. A woman calls up and she says: My son has a very 
serious medical illness, and we spend a fortune on prescription drugs. 
What is going to happen if this bill passes? What was I going to tell 
her, that perhaps her son would die? It is just not something I feel 
comfortable even talking about.

[[Page S3982]]

  The truth is--and this is not Bernie Sanders talking, this is study 
after study after study that says that if you do as they did in the 
House, which is throw 23 million people off of health insurance, 
including people who are struggling with cancer, people who are 
struggling with heart disease, people who are struggling with diabetes, 
what does common sense tell us? If you are struggling with cancer and 
you lose your health insurance, what do you think is going to happen to 
you?
  What study after study has shown is that thousands of people will 
die. It is not that any Republican here wants to see anyone die, but 
that is the consequence of what happens when you throw, as the House 
bill did, 23 million people off of health insurance. We should not be 
giving tax breaks to insurance companies and then throwing disabled 
children, or people with terrible illnesses who are fighting for their 
lives, off of health insurance.
  The AARP is very strongly opposed to this legislation. The reason is 
pretty clear. What every person in America should understand, and I am 
not sure that many do, is that Medicaid now pays for over two-thirds of 
all nursing home care--two-thirds. What happens to the seniors and 
persons with disabilities who have their nursing home coverage paid for 
by Medicaid today? What is going to happen to those people?
  What happens if your mom is in a nursing home? You don't have a lot 
of money, and your mom is in a nursing home paid for by Medicaid. What 
happens if Medicaid is slashed? What is going to happen to your mom? Is 
she going to be thrown out on the street or end up in the basement of 
your house? Are you going to have to make the choice about whether you 
take care of her or put away a few bucks to send your kid to college? 
If suddenly a daughter or a son is going to have to care for a mom or a 
dad thrown out of a nursing home, how do they go to work to earn the 
money their families need?
  These are legitimate questions, and it would have been nice to have a 
hearing or two in order to answer those questions.
  The bottom line is that we have legislation before us that is widely 
rejected by the American people. The last poll that I saw, which was 
done by USA Today, suggested that 12 percent of the American people 
supported this legislation--12 percent. Virtually every major 
healthcare organization in America opposes this legislation. There is 
nothing I have seen today--none of the tweaks that have been put into 
this make this legislation in any way, shape, or form acceptable.
  It is no great secret that the Affordable Care Act is far from 
perfect. I don't think you hear anybody here say: Hey, the ACA is 
great; it doesn't need any changes. It does need changes. Deductibles 
are far too high in Vermont. Premiums are too high. Copayments are too 
high. And the cost of prescription drugs in Vermont and all over this 
country is off the charts.
  I was in West Virginia, and I talked to a woman for a moment after I 
spoke, and she said that she is taking care of her older brother. Her 
brother has seizures. The medicine her brother was using went up by 900 
percent over the last few years. Why? Because that is what the drug 
companies can get away with. Tomorrow it may be 1,000 percent. Does 
anybody in America think that makes sense? Is anybody happy in 
America? Are people in Missouri happy, are people in West Virginia and 
people in Vermont happy that we are paying by far the highest prices in 
the world for prescription drugs? I don't think so. There are ideas out 
there about how we can significantly lower the costs of prescription 
drugs in this country, how we can lower deductibles, how we can lower 
copayments.

  Now, as I have said many, many times, I happen to believe that while 
it is important that we improve the Affordable Care Act, at the end of 
the day, this country must do what every other major country on Earth 
does, and that is to understand that healthcare is a right, not a 
privilege.
  Right now, we have 28 million people who have zero health insurance. 
If this bill in the House were to go through, there would be another 23 
million on top of the 28--over 50 million people--without any health 
insurance. Does that make any sense to anybody?
  Our job is to join the rest of the industrialized world and make sure 
that every man, woman, and child has healthcare as a right, no matter 
what your income is. When you get sick, you go to the doctor. When you 
have to go to the hospital, you don't go bankrupt. That is what a 
civilized democracy is about. That is what they do in Canada. That is 
what they do in the UK, France, Germany, Scandinavia, and Holland. 
Every major country on Earth guarantees healthcare to all people. That 
is where I want to see our country go, and I will be introducing 
legislation to make sure that happens.
  More and more people all over this country want to move us in that 
direction. But right now, our job is to make sure that millions of 
people do not lose their health insurance in order to give tax breaks 
to insurance companies. Our job is to make sure that disabled children 
continue to get the care they need and older folks aren't thrown out of 
nursing homes. That is what we have to do.
  So I urge in the strongest possible way the defeat of this 
legislation. Then, let's go forward to improve the Affordable Care Act, 
not destroy it.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.