PREPARED REMARKS: Sanders Keeps Sounding the Alarm on Health Care Emergency Worsened by Trump Budget Bill

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), today delivered remarks on the impact of the Republican reconciliation bill — which passed the Senate by one vote and will throw nearly 17 million Americans off the health care they have.

There is no question that cybersecurity and protecting the privacy of Americans’ health care records are important issues that we need to deal with.

But, Mr. Chairman, let me be very clear. That is not the issue that is right now on the minds of the American people. What people are worried about is the catastrophic impact that the reconciliation bill that was passed last week will have on the health and well-being of the American people. And that is the issue that I'm going to be focused on today.

That legislation, passed by one vote here in the Senate, will be making the largest cut to Medicaid in American history to pay for the largest tax break for billionaires in American history.

At a time when our current health care system is broken, dysfunctional and cruel — 85 million today are uninsured or underinsured. This bill will make a horrible situation even worse.

This legislation will cut Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act by more than $1.1 trillion.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that this bill, along with the expiration of the enhanced premium tax credits, will cause 17 million people to lose their health insurance.

Researchers at the Yale School of Public Health and health care economists at the University of Pennsylvania have found that these health care policies would cause over 50,000 people in our country to die unnecessarily every year. That's what happens when you can't get to a doctor.

I am delighted that one of the lead researchers of this report, Dr. Alison Galvani, is here with us today to talk more about that study.

Mr. Chairman: it is not rocket science. You're a doctor, you know this. If people don’t have access to health care, if they can’t get to a doctor when they need to, people will suffer and tens of thousands will die. It happens today and it will only get worse.

Make no mistake about it: This bill is a death sentence for working-class and low-income Americans.

Further, as a result of this bill, more than 300 rural hospitals are now at risk of closing down altogether or substantially reducing their services. That is not my estimate. That’s what the Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina recently estimated.

And we are already beginning to see the devastating impact this bill will have on rural America: The Curtis Medical Center in Southwest Nebraska has already announced that it will be shutting down because it cannot withstand the cuts to Medicaid contained in this bill.

It’s not just rural hospitals that are now in crisis as a result of this legislation.

According to a recent survey from the American Health Care Association, as a result of this bill, 27% of nursing homes have indicated that they will be forced to close their doors and 58% will have to reduce staff. And it’s not just nursing homes.

Health care researchers at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University have found that this bill will be a disaster for community health centers.

They have estimated that as a result of the passage of this bill, over 40% of community health center sites will shut down. Today, there are over 15,000 community health center clinics throughout America. This could result in the shutting down of some 9,000 of them.

And it's not just community health centers, it's not just nursing homes and it's not just individuals.

This legislation will substantially increase the uninsured rate in every state in this country.

As a result of this bill, the uninsured rate in my own state of Vermont would go up from 3.3% to 6%.

In Louisiana, the Chairman's state, the uninsured rate will go up from 6.7% to 12.4%.

In Florida, the uninsured rate will go up from 10.4% to 18.8%.

In Texas, the second largest state in this country, the uninsured rate will go up to 20% — in the United States, in the richest country in the history of the world.

Mr. Chairman, this is an issue that needs to be explained to the American people, and I look forward to discussing it with all of our panelists.