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Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, 2016/Healthcare
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 Bernie Sanders |
U.S. Senator (Assumed office: 2007) U.S. Representative (1991-2007) |
2028 • 2024 • 2020 • 2016 |
This page was current as of the 2016 election.
| CANDIDATE SUMMARY | |
- On May 14, 2016, Bernie Sanders called on Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump to join him in supporting the California Drug Price Standards Initiative, which would prevent the state from paying for prescription drugs at a rate higher than the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs does.[2]
- Sanders released a statement on May 12, 2016, against the ruling in U.S. House of Representatives v. Burwell, where U.S. District Judge Rosemary M. Collyer held that the Obama administration unconstitutionally spent $2 billion to offset the cost of the Affordable Care Act. “At a time when the United States is the only major country on earth that doesn’t guarantee health care to all Americans – and 29 million people still lack insurance – it would be a disaster to throw millions of low-income Americans off health insurance. I fully expect that today’s decision will be reversed,” Sanders said.[3]
- The Urban Institute released this analysis of Sanders’ single-payer healthcare plan on May 9, 2016: “His system would cover all medically necessary care, including long-term care, without cost-sharing. We estimate that the approach would decrease the uninsured by 28.3 million people in 2017. National health expenditures would increase by $6.6 trillion between 2017 and 2026, while federal expenditures would increase by $32.0 trillion over that period. Sanders’s revenue proposals, intended to finance all health and nonhealth spending he proposed, would raise $15.3 trillion from 2017 to 2026—thus, the proposed taxes are much too low to fully finance his health plan.”[4]
- Along with U.S. Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Bernie Sanders is leading the effort to encourage the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to address the cost of the prostate cancer drug Xtandi. "The United States government should use every tool available to lower outrageously high prescription drug prices. NIH has the power to stop this blatant profiteering and put the pharmaceutical industry on notice that the era of charging unconscionable prices must end,” Sanders said in a press release on March 28, 2016.[5]
- Bernie Sanders issued a plan on March 14, 2016, to address the affordability of drugs for individuals with HIV and AIDS. Its foundation would be a $3 billion “Prize Fund for HIV/AIDS” to support innovation in drug research. “The Prize Fund would reward medical researchers and developers of medicines based primarily upon the added therapeutic value a new treatment offers and the number of people it benefits. Instead of a system where the market is manipulated to keep out all competition, companies would be rewarded for their innovation with a cash prize for their medical innovations, rather than through the grant of a monopoly. Under Bernie’s plan, drugs would have generic competition immediately after FDA approval,” according to a white paper posted to Sanders’ campaign website.[6][7]
- Sanders' campaign released a statement on January 21, 2016, criticizing Hillary Clinton’s healthcare plan for being vague. “Her website promises she’ll ‘expand affordable coverage, slow the growth of overall health care costs and make it possible for providers to deliver the very best care to patients.’ How exactly? Does she have a plan to improve Medicare or Medicaid? Does she have a plan to provide insurance for 29 million Americans who still lack coverage and more who are underinsured? If she does have a plan to achieve universal health care, voters deserve to see it. If she does not have one, voters in Iowa and New Hampshire deserve to know that too,” spokesman Michael Briggs said.[8]
- Sanders defended his healthcare proposal that includes “Medicare for all” again on January 18, 2016, in an interview with CBS News. “If you're not one of the 29 million who doesn't have any insurance, and you have a 5,000 dollar deductible, you know what that means: When you're sick you don't go to the doctor," Sanders said. "One out of five people in this country cannot even fill the prescription that their doctor writes for them - that's called rationing. The truth of the matter is that our health care outcomes are not necessarily any better than many of the other countries who are spending significantly less per capita than we are." Estimates by Gerald Friedman, an economist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst retained by the Sanders campaign, show Sanders’ plan reducing Medicare costs by $6.3 trillion from 2017 to 2026. However, according to an opinion piece in Forbes by Avik Roy, an advisor to Marco Rubio, the plan could potentially increase federal spending by around $28 trillion, or 55 percent, over the same time period. Roy remarks in his article that the opinions expressed do not “necessarily correspond to those of Sen. Rubio.”[9][10]
- During the fourth Democratic presidential primary debate on January 17, 2016, Sanders reacted to Clinton’s comments about his healthcare plan and his Medicaid-for-all system proposal: “Because what her campaign was saying—Bernie Sanders, who has fought for universal health care for my entire life, he wants to end Medicare, end Medicaid, end the children's health insurance program. That is nonsense. What a Medicare-for-all program does is finally provide in this country health care for every man, woman and child as a right. Now, the truth is, that Frank Delano Roosevelt, Harry Truman, do you know what they believed in? They believed that health care should be available to all of our people. I'm on the committee that wrote the Affordable Care Act. I made the Affordable Care Act along with Jim Clyburn a better piece of legislation. I voted for it, but right now, what we have to deal with is the fact that 29 million people still have no health insurance. We are paying the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, getting ripped off. And here's the important point, we are spending far more per person on health care than the people of any other country. My proposal, provide health care to all people, get private insurance out of health insurance, lower the cost of health care for middle class families by 5,000 bucks. That's the vision we need to take. No one is tearing this up, we're going to go forward. But with the secretary neglected to mention, not just the 29 million still have no health insurance, that even more are underinsured with huge copayments and deductibles. Tell me why we are spending almost three times more than the British, who guarantee health care to all of their people? Fifty percent more than the French, more than the Canadians. The vision from FDR and Harry Truman was health care for all people as a right in a cost-effective way. We're not going to tear up the Affordable Care Act. I helped write it. But we are going to move on top of that to a Medicaid-for-all system.”
- At the third Democratic primary debate on December 19, 2015, Sanders discussed his desire to establish a single-payer healthcare system: “Why is it that we are -- why is it that we spend almost three times per capita as to what they spend in the U.K., 50 percent more than what they pay in France, countries that guarantee health care to all of their people and in many cases, have better health care outcomes. Bottom line. This ties into campaign finance reform. The insurance companies, the drug companies are bribing the United States Congress. We need to pass a Medicare for all single payer system. It will lower the cost of health care for a middle-class family by thousands of dollars a year.”[11]
- On December 1, 2015, Sanders criticized Republican legislation that would repeal key provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Sanders said, "What this legislation does is move us in exactly the wrong direction. The bill we are debating today is a complete waste of time. … We have a health care crisis and this bill makes the crisis much worse. … When you throw 17 million people off health insurance, people will die because they don't go to a doctor when they should, they don't get into the hospital when they should.”[12]
- At the second Democratic primary debate, on November 14, 2015, Sanders, when asked about the Affordable Care Act, said, "I believe we've got to go further. I want to end the international embarrassment of the United States of America being the only major country on earth that doesn't guarantee health care to all people as a right, not a privilege. And also -- also, what we should be clear about is we end up spending -- and I think the secretary knows this -- far more per capita on health care than any other major country, and our outcomes, health care outcomes are not necessarily that good.[13]
- Sanders, in partnership with U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), introduced the Prescription Drug Affordability Act of 2015 on September 10, 2015. “There is no rational reason why Americans should pay by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. The result of that is people are dying and becoming much sicker because they can’t afford the medicines they need,” Sanders said.[14]
- Sanders sponsored S.1782 - the American Health Security Act of 2013, which "Expresses the sense of the Senate concerning: (1) enactment of a Medicare-for-All Single Payer Health Care System; (2) recognition of health care as a human right; (3) state flexibility in designing health care programs; and (4) the goals of a new single-payer health care system, efficiencies through integrated care, and implementation of policies to ensure higher quality, better prevention, and lower per capita costs."[15]
- Sanders voted for H.R.3590 - the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare". It became law on March 23, 2010.[16]
- Sanders voted for H.R.3103 - the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, also known as HIPPA. It became law on August 21, 1996.[17]
Recent news
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See also
Footnotes
- ↑ VPR, "Bernie Sanders Is Streaming His Presidential Announcement On Periscope," April 30, 2015
- ↑ Bernie Sanders for President, "Press Release: Sanders Challenges Clinton, Trump to Back California Drug Price Proposition," May 14, 2016
- ↑ Bernie Sanders for President, "Press Release: Sanders Statement on Affordable Care Act Ruling," May 12, 2016
- ↑ The Urban Institute, "The Sanders Single-Payer Health Care Plan: The Effect on National Health Expenditures and Federal and Private Spending," May 9, 2016
- ↑ U.S. Senator for Vermont, Bernie Sanders, "Lawmakers to NIH and HHS: Act Now on Drug Affordability," March 28, 2016
- ↑ Fortune, "Bernie Sanders Unveils Plan to Tackle HIV/AIDS," March 14, 2016
- ↑ Bernie Sanders for President, "Working to Create an AIDS and HIV-Free Generation," accessed March 15, 2016
- ↑ Bernie2016, "What’s Clinton’s Secret Health Care Plan?" accessed January 22, 2016
- ↑ CBS News, "Bernie Sanders: American health care is already rationed," January 18, 2016
- ↑ Forbes, "Bernie Sanders' Single-Payer Health Care Plan Would Increase Federal Spending By At Least $28 Trillion," January 18, 2016
- ↑ The Washington Post, "3rd Democratic debate transcript, annotated: Who said what and what it meant," December 19, 2015
- ↑ The Hill, "Sanders: ObamaCare repeal bill a 'waste of time,'" December 1, 2015
- ↑ The Washington Post, "The CBS Democratic debate transcript, annotated," November 15, 2015
- ↑ The Wall Street Journal, "Bernie Sanders to Introduce Bill Targeting High Drug Prices," September 9, 2015
- ↑ Congress.gov, "S.1782," accessed April 8, 2015
- ↑ Congress.gov, "H.R.3590," accessed April 8, 2015
- ↑ Congress.gov, "H.R.3103," accessed April 8, 2015
