'So If You And President Trump Are Serious...': Bernie Sanders Makes Direct Appeal To RFK Jr.

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At Wednesday's Senate Health Committee hearing, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) issued a direct appeal about healthcare to HHS Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Transcript

00:00Andrews for his opening statement. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Mr. Secretary, thanks for being with us.

00:07Let me begin by quoting a sentence that came from your prepared remarks.

00:15You state, and I quote, the United States remains the sickest developed nation,

00:21and we spend four and a half trillion annually on health care, two to three times more per capita

00:27than comparable nations. Clearly, something is structurally wrong with our approach, end of

00:33quote. You're right. The current health care system is broken. It is wildly expensive. It is

00:43dysfunctional. So what do we do, Mr. Secretary, to address it? Maybe for a start, we do what every

00:53other major country on earth does and recognize that health care is a human right guaranteed to

01:02every man, woman, and child. Maybe we understand that the function of a rational health care system

01:10is not to make hundreds of billions of dollars in profit for insurance companies and drug companies

01:18who often engage in stock buybacks, pay their CEOs outrageous compensation packages. There was a

01:26guy from one of the major drug companies sitting exactly where you are sitting last year. A guy makes

01:31$50 million a year. Meanwhile, we don't have enough doctors. We don't have enough nurses. We don't have

01:40enough dentists. We don't have enough pharmacists. We don't have enough health care workers in general. You are

01:50right. The system is structurally broken. We spend far more. We have a shorter life expectancy than other

01:59countries. So this is an issue that I want to address with you. How, in fact, do we guarantee health care to all

02:08people and do it in an effective way? Let me say a word about prescription drugs.

02:16You and President Trump had a press conference earlier this week discussing an executive order

02:22that both of you claim would make sure that the American people pay the lowest prices in the world

02:28for prescription drugs, not the highest. As you mentioned at your press conference, this is a concept that I

02:36personally strongly support. I think you are aware of that. But as President Trump and you should know,

02:45this executive order, like Trump's previous executive orders on the subject, will likely be thrown out

02:53by the courts and we will be back to exactly where we are today, paying by far the highest prices in the

02:59world for prescription drugs. In my view, the way forward is through legislative action. So if you

03:07and President Trump are serious about significantly lowering the outrageous price of prescription drugs

03:14in this country, as I hope you are, I would very much appreciate both of you working with me and other

03:22people on this committee and in the Senate on legislation that I will soon be introducing,

03:29which accomplishes exactly the same goal as you and the President talked about, making sure that we pay

03:36no more for prescription drugs than people in other major countries. So if we are serious about that,

03:43let's work together and let's make that happen. And in fact, if Republicans and Democrats come together on

03:50this, if we prioritize it, we can pass that legislation in a couple of weeks. Thirdly, Secretary Kennedy,

03:57all of us want to make the government more efficient and cost effective and fewer than I

04:04that there is too much bureaucracy. But let me tell you also what we want and what the American people

04:13want. And that is, we want the federal government to play a major role in continuing its efforts to

04:19combat such terrible diseases as cancer, Alzheimer's, diabetes, heart disease, and other

04:26terrible illnesses that claim the lives of millions of Americans. In that regard, I must tell you that

04:32I have heard from citizens, patients and doctors in Vermont and all over this country, who are deeply

04:38concerned that under the leadership of you and Mr. Musk, the Trump administration has terminated at least

04:4313 and a half billion dollars in health care funding, including more than 1600 grants to conduct vital research

04:51into cancer prevention, Alzheimer's, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, among many other medical research

04:57investments. In the first three months of this year, the National Institute of Health has been effectively cut by

05:032.7 billion, a 35 percent cut, reversing over a decade of investment in medical research. Under your leadership,

05:12cancer research has been slashed by 31 percent. Further, Secretary Kennedy, under your leadership,

05:19you have undermined the vital role vaccines play in preventing disease during the single largest measles

05:25outbreak in 25 years, which has led to over 1,000 cases of measles, over 125 hospitalizations, and three deaths.

05:35Let me say a word about USAID. Elon Musk, the richest man on earth, who has led the effort to cut health and nutrition

05:47programs for the poorest people on earth, has absurdly suggested that no one, quote unquote,

05:56no one, has died from the massive cuts to USAID. Mr. Musk is 100 percent wrong. According to independent

06:04researchers, nearly 200,000 people have already died throughout the world as a result of the massive cuts in

06:10funding to prevent malaria, tuberculosis, HIV, malnutrition, and other serious diseases. Further,

06:17as a result of the elimination of U.S. funding for a global vaccine program, it has been estimated that

06:22over a million children will die because of the cuts that will save taxpayers very, very little money.

06:28So let me just conclude by saying this. The United States of America is the wealthiest country on earth.

06:34We should have the best health care system in the world, not one of the worst. Given our purchasing power,

06:41we should be paying the lowest prices on earth for prescription drugs, not the highest. Instead of

06:48giving hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks to the richest people in this country,

06:53we should be proudly investing in coming up with cures for cancer, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes,

07:00and other terrible illnesses. That is what we should be doing, but I am afraid that in too many ways

07:06we are doing exactly the opposite. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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