Senate Proceeding on Feb 26th, 2009 :: 7:22:15 to 7:33:40
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7:22:11 to 7:22:32( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: date hopefully when i have the support of my friend. thank you. i yield back. mr. sanders: madam president? senator from ver mr. sanders: thank you, madam president. i'm not going to talk about pets pets. i'm going to tk about the other species called human beings. and the point that i want to start off with is that i think

7:22:15 to 7:33:40( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Bernard Sanders

7:22:33 to 7:22:53( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: everybody recognizes that our current health care system is in very serious crisis. we have 46 million americans who lack any health we have even more than that who are underinsured. the cost of health care is soaring and we end up spending twice as much per person on

7:22:54 to 7:23:15( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: health care as do the people of any other nation, d so many people uninsured and underinsured. but, madam lot of the discussion regarding the health care crisis focuses on insurance coverage, there another crisis equally severe that we don't talk enough about

7:23:16 to 7:23:39( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: and that is the crisis in access to doctors and dentists, in fact, the crisis in primary health care. and the truth of the matter is, is that in our country today, we have some 56 million americans, including americans who have health insurance who simply

7:23:40 to 7:24:01( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: cannot find a more, cannot find a nurse and the absurdity of that is that when somebody cannot find a doctor, that person will end up going to the emergency room at great cost to equally likely that person may not go to the doctor at all,

7:24:02 to 7:24:22( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: gets sick and end up in the hospital and we're spending of thousands of dollars treating that person where we could have spent far less if that man, woman or chi doctor when the illness first developed. i am very gratified and i want

7:24:23 to 7:24:43( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: to thank president obama, i want to thank senator inouye and senator harkin, congressman obey, the democratic leadership in the nation a giant step forward in terms of addressing the crisis in primary health care in the stimulus package.

7:24:44 to 7:25:04( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: what happened in the stimulus package is that $2 billion was al health centers, to help those community health centers expand to help the growth of new community health centers.

7:25:05 to 7:25:26( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: and on top of that, another $300 million was appropriated for the madam president, the national health service corp. i corps is one of the most important health service programs we have in this country because it provides debt forgiveness and scholarships for young physicians so that they can go out and serve in

7:25:27 to 7:25:47( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: underserved areas. many medical school graduates are leaving school with $100,000, $150,000 in debt and they have no choice but to end up becoming specialists and make a whole lot of money in order to pay down those debts. so what we have done in the

7:25:48 to 7:26:08( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: stimulus package is almost triple -- almost triple -- the amount of money going into the national health service corps, which means that we are going to be able to young physicians and dentists to go out and serve in underserved areas, which is a huge step forward for primary health care. and i think that was a very,

7:26:09 to 7:26:29( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: very important part of the stimulus package. and, in fact, on that, this sum of money is going to create 44,000 sustainable jobs as health care infrastructurement and as we provide health care to an additional 4 million americans.

7:26:30 to 7:26:50( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: madam president, as as what we did in the stimulus package is, the truth is that is only a down payment for what we have to do toddress the crisis in terms of primary health ce. and, thefore, i am very proud to announce that today i

7:26:51 to 7:27:12( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: introduced, along with 21 of my senate colleues -- and they are in alphabetical order, senators begich, bingaman, boxer, brown, burris, cardin, casey, durbin, harkin, inouye, kennedy, kerry, johnson, leahy, menendez, merkley, mikulski, sure, tester, and wyden.

7:27:13 to 7:27:34( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: all of those senators joining with necessity new legislation which is, in fact, going to revolutionize primary health care in america. and also with me today, minority whip in the house, jim clie burn introduced a similaintroduced asimilar bill, which i believe has 78 cosponsors. and that legislation is called

7:27:35 to 7:27:58( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: "the access for all america act," and its goal is to significantly expand community health centers all over this country as well as the national health service corps. madam president,, the health center concept was developed by senator over 40 years ago, and the truth

7:27:59 to 7:28:20( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: of the matter is that the concept of community health centers have been long supported in a bipartisan president bush was supportive of the concept. senator mccain certainly president. orrin hatch, many others, republicans have been suprtive of it as well as many people on

7:28:21 to 7:28:43( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: our side of the the reason for that bipartisan support is that everydy here understands that community health centers provide quality health care in a cost-effective manner. what community health centers do is provide health care, comprehensive health care in

7:28:44 to 7:29:05( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: terms of access to doctors, to dentists, and i would point out that there is a major dental cris all over this country. co have got to provide mental health counseling. and on top of that, community health centers provide the lowest-cost prescription drugs in the united states of america.

7:29:06 to 7:29:29( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: today there are approxima 1,100 community health centers all over america. in my state of vermont, we have gone from two to seven in the last five years and they are now providing health care to over 80,000 vermonters. so we have 1,100 in this country today. what this legislation will do is go from 1,100 community

7:29:30 to 7:29:54( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: centers to 4,800 community health centers, q number of health centers in america. and by doing that, we will provide comprehensive, high-quality primary health care in this country, a giant step forward in terms of making primary health care accessible to every man,

7:29:55 to 7:30:16( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: this nition. -- now nation. we need toe move t a national health care program that guarantees health care to everybody. we need to take a giant step forward to primary health care very soon. here is one of the wonderful assets of in this legislation does.

7:30:17 to 7:30:38( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: right now we spend about $2.1 billion a year for this legislation over a five-year period will t number up to $8 billion. we'll go from $2 billion to $8 billion as we quadrupled the number of health centers. what study after study suggests

7:30:39 to 7:31:01( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: is that, in fact, this investment will end up saving us money. this investment in primary health willave us money because those people who get sick will now be able to go to a community health center, perhaps the most health care in america, rather

7:31:02 to 7:31:27( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: than walking into an emergency room, which is one of the most expensive health care providers in the country. in addition, when people have access to health care and get they're not going to get very sick and end up in a hospital where it will cost tens of thousands of dollars to deal with their illness.

7:31:28 to 7:31:53( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: so what this legislation does is quadrupled the number of community health centers. it very substantially increases the amount of money that goes to the national health service corps so we can provide debt relief and scholarships to young physicians who will then go out and serve us in underserved areas.

7:31:55 to 7:32:15( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: mr. president, in legislation, if passed, and i think we have a good chance to pass it because there is a whole lot in senate for this concept, a lot of support in the house as well. this legislation will revolutionize primary health care in america.

7:32:16 to 7:32:38( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: it will bring us to the day when virtually every american will have access to a doctor, a dentist, mental health counseling and low-cost prescription drugs. it will enable us to produce the doctors, dentists, nurses, the other health care pviders that we desperately need to get out to your ban america, underserved areas.

7:32:39 to 7:33:01( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: it will be in providing the primary health care infrastructure we need as we, in health care program. mr. president, this is important legislation. i want to thank all of the 21 members of the senate who have already come on as original co-sponsors. we hope that many more will come

7:33:02 to 7:33:26( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: on in the coming weeks and months. my hope is that we can get this bill out of committee and see it passed as a stand alone piece of legislation. mr. president, thank you very much, and i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk

7:33:27 to 7:33:32( Edit History Discussion )

Bernard Sanders: will call the roll.