'Is Healthcare A Human Right?': Bernie Sanders Questions RFK Jr. In Senate Hearing

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At Wednesday's Senate Health Committee hearing, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) questioned HHS Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. if he believes healthcare is a human right.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me stop going back to prescription drugs.

00:04Mr. Secretary, did I hear you correctly to state that your goal is to have Americans pay the lowest prices in the world,

00:13or equivalent to what is paid in other major countries? That is my goal.

00:17That you are prepared to work with us on legislation to achieve that goal?

00:22Absolutely.

00:23All right. And I believe there's bipartisan support for it.

00:26I believe that if the leadership here prioritizes that, we can do that in a very short period of time.

00:32Look forward to that.

00:34Let me ask you this. As Secretary of HHS, we have in America today some 85 million Americans who are uninsured or underinsured.

00:47We spend more per capita, as you've indicated, than any other country.

00:50Is health care a human right?

00:53Are we making America healthy when so many people cannot afford to go to a doctor,

00:59when 68,000 people a year die because they don't get to a doctor when they should?

01:04Is health care a human right?

01:05Will you work with us to guarantee health care to every man, woman, and child in America?

01:10Well, I think you're asking two different questions.

01:12You're asking a philosophical question about whether it is a human right, like a constitutional right.

01:19As an attorney, I would say that it's not a right of a kind that we otherwise enshrine in the Constitution.

01:30Because health care costs your neighbor money.

01:34If I smoke cigarettes for 20 years, I make that choice, which is my choice.

01:40I don't mean to, you know, I don't have a lot of time.

01:41So I just, I am here.

01:43If you ask a question, if you're asking me a philosophical question, I got to, you know, give you a thoughtful answer.

01:49Within 30 seconds.

01:51Yeah.

01:52It's a problem.

01:53It's not like freedom of speech, which costs, you know, everybody.

01:56But every other country, Mr. Secretary, every other country guarantees health care to all people as a right.

02:02Should we, as Americans?

02:05The objective is to get Americans a level of health care that they want, the choice which Americans want.

02:15They don't want the choice to be uninsured.

02:17They don't want the choice to die because they don't get to a doctor on top.

02:21Americans prefer private insurance to other insurance sources.

02:27Do you believe?

02:28Okay.

02:28And what I would say is, you know, I want to find a solution to this.

02:32I want every American to have insurance.

02:34President Trump wants every American to be insured and have access to health care.

02:39The question is, how do we get there?

02:41Obamacare is not working.

02:43It is not working.

02:45And this is the.

02:46Are we can, okay, sorry to interrupt you.

02:49All right.

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