During a Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) gave opening remarks about the medical debt crisis and healthcare spending.
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NewsTranscript
00:00It is no secret, I think, to most Americans that our current health care system is broken.
00:11It is dysfunctional.
00:13It is a cruel system.
00:15It is the only system in the industrialized world that does not guarantee health care
00:20to all people, and yet we end up spending twice as much per capita on health care as
00:26the people of other nations, and the result of all that is that our life expectancy is
00:31significantly lower than many other countries, and our health care outcomes are often worse.
00:38But today, we are going to be talking about one of the most outrageous and cruelest aspects
00:47of this dysfunctional health care system, and that is that people who suffer and are
00:54trying to deal with terrible illnesses, cancer, heart disease, whatever, not only have to
01:00struggle to try to get well, struggle to get the treatment that they need, but then in
01:05the midst of all that, they are consumed with the reality that their family may go bankrupt
01:12because of the outrageous cost of health care.
01:15Truth is that in America today, the leading cause of personal bankruptcy, what is personal
01:20bankruptcy?
01:21Do people go to Las Vegas and blow their money gambling?
01:25Are they buying extravagant homes and fancy jewelry?
01:28No.
01:29The leading cause of personal bankruptcy in this country is the outrageously high prices
01:35that large hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and insurance companies charge the American
01:41people for the crime of getting sick.
01:45Bankruptcy takes place because you get sick and need medical treatment.
01:50Let's be clear, the medical debt crisis our nation is experiencing is a uniquely American
01:57phenomenon.
01:58It does not exist in other countries around the world.
02:02We are the only major country on earth where an emergency visit to a hospital can cause
02:07patients to lose their homes and their life savings because of the high cost of medical
02:12care.
02:13Imagine that, having a medical emergency, going to an emergency room, and then you lose
02:17your home as a result.
02:18How insane is that?
02:20I live 50 miles away from the Canadian border.
02:25In Canada, if you spend a month in the hospital dealing with some terrible illness, you come
02:29out and the bill you get is zero.
02:32That is what you get.
02:33And that is true in most civilized, industrialized countries.
02:38In America today, over 66 percent of all personal bankruptcies in this country, some 530,000
02:46per year, are connected, related, to unpaid medical bills.
02:52And after declaring bankruptcy, what happens?
02:55Your creditworthiness is destroyed.
02:59And if you are able to take out a loan, you will pay extremely high interest rates on
03:03anything you purchase as you spiral further and further into poverty and economic instability.
03:12And this is really stunning, and I really hope everybody hears this reality.
03:16This is the American health care system.
03:20The medical debt crisis in America has become so horrific that about one out of every four
03:25cancer patients in America either declared bankruptcy or lost their homes to eviction
03:31or foreclosure as a result of medical debt in 2022.
03:37Not enough that you are dealing with cancer.
03:40One out of four either declare bankruptcy or lose their homes.
03:45Now how outrageous and disgraceful is that?
03:48Further, 42 percent of cancer patients in our country have been forced to deplete their
03:53entire life savings within two years of their diagnosis.
03:58And it is not just cancer patients who are struggling financially with medical debt and
04:01the high cost of health care.
04:03In 2018, 8 million Americans slipped out of the middle class and into poverty due to medical
04:10expenses.
04:11Again, punished financially for what crime?
04:14That you are diagnosed with cancer?
04:16That should not be happening.
04:18Nearly one out of every four Americans have skipped needed medical treatment because they
04:22can't afford it.
04:23Over 60 percent of Americans with medical debt have cut back on food, clothing, or other
04:27basic necessities.
04:30Now some people may be thinking that medical debt is just a problem that impacts the uninsured,
04:37people without any insurance.
04:38That is not accurate.
04:39In America today, 61 percent of people who have health insurance have racked up medical
04:46debt over the past five years.
04:48In total, 100 million Americans, 41 percent of our adult population owe $222 billion in
04:55medical debt.
04:57Let me just, a couple of days ago in my office through our social media, we asked people
05:01around the country and in Vermont, tell us your experience with medical debt.
05:05Let me very briefly read a few of the stories that we got.
05:09Gentleman named Eric from Oregon wrote, quote, I received a traumatic brain injury.
05:14I woke up from a coma with a hospital bill of over half a million dollars.
05:18How are you supposed to start a new life being $500,000 in debt after being in a coma for
05:23three and a half months?
05:24That's a hell of a way to wake up.
05:27Melissa from Montana wrote, quote, I developed heart failure from an abnormal heart rhythm.
05:31In my 30s, I had no insurance.
05:34My family of five went bankrupt and lost their home.
05:36I'm in my 50s with a career in speech pathology and I still can't afford health insurance.
05:43Andrea from Nevada wrote, quote, my mother got colon cancer.
05:47She did not have adequate insurance.
05:49They wanted $3,000 up front before they would start her chemotherapy treatment.
05:53It would then cost another $3,000 a week for a minimum of 10 weeks.
05:58She never got a single chemotherapy treatment.
06:02And of course, we can only imagine what happened.
06:05So that's the bottom line.
06:07Are we a nation which says that if you come down with some terrible illness, you run the
06:13risk of destroying the financial stability of your family?
06:16Is that really where we are as a nation?
06:18I think not.
06:20And today we're going to begin to, in my view, needless to say, we need to transform our
06:24entire health care system, move to Medicare for all, but that's not what we're discussing
06:28today.
06:29What we're at least looking at today is how short term we can protect the many, many,
06:34many millions of people who are struggling financially because they committed the crime
06:41of getting sick.