Bernie Sanders Presses Expert On Claim That 51,000 People Will Die Annually Due To GOP Budget

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During a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) spoke about cuts to healthcare in the Republican budget.

Transcript

00:00The chair recognizes Senator Sanders.

00:04Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:09Dr. Galvani, you and your colleagues at Yale and the University of Pennsylvania have estimated

00:19that 51,000 people will die each year as a result of this reconciliation bill.

00:26How did you come up with those estimates?

00:29Our estimates are based on the congressional budget calculation that 17 million people are poised to lose health care.

00:41We can then compare from empirical studies the rates of mortality, age stratified mortality,

00:50for people who are insured versus uninsured.

00:53There's about a 40% higher rate of mortality for those people and that's how we generated that number.

01:00In addition, the University of Pennsylvania calculated the impacts of nursing home,

01:08changes to nursing home safety procedures and pharmaceutical, the removal of pharmaceutical subsidies for seniors and Medicare.

01:20A moment, I'm sorry he left.

01:25Senator Usted thought that this legislation would be a positive for rural hospitals,

01:31quoted a statement from some folks in Ohio.

01:35The University of North Carolina has estimated that this legislation will cause over 335 rural hospitals in America

01:47to shut down or substantially reduce the services they provide.

01:52Mr. Weissman, what is your sense about how this legislation will impact rural hospitals throughout the country?

01:58Although I'm from Ohio, I don't know what that reference was.

02:03But I think the best evidence is it will be devastating for rural hospitals.

02:07And the $50 billion was about a third of what's going to be lost overall for rural hospitals from the bill.

02:14I think what you just said is really important.

02:17A significant number will close.

02:19Others that stay open will massively scale back the services they offer.

02:24And as we know, what that means for people in rural America is that they're going to not get access to care.

02:31Often the rural hospital is not just one of many hospitals, it's the one that they can go to and the choice is to not go at all.

02:40There are also economic linchpins and community centers.

02:44We're going to see really the deatomization of rural America worse as a result of this Medicaid cutback.

02:51Okay.

02:55Ms. Stevenson, I know that you're not the CEO of your hospital.

02:59Do you have any thoughts about the impact of the reconciliation bill on rural hospitals?

03:04Certainly, we are spending a lot of time doing evaluation of that right now.

03:09Because it's so recent, I don't have any details.

03:11However, I can tell you that any cuts for organizations, if that were to arise, depending on how that's appropriated throughout the states,

03:20it means fewer dollars to invest in, whether that's for patient care or it's for cybersecurity.

03:26So more to come, but we are certainly watching it closely.

03:32Dr. Galvani and Mr. Weissman talked a little bit about rural hospitals.

03:38We talked about the impact on primarily low-income and working-class people who will lose their health care.

03:44According to a recent survey, 27% of nursing homes in America.

03:49And that's just an issue, Mr. Chairman, we don't talk about enough.

03:52I can tell you that in Vermont, nursing homes are struggling.

03:55But this bill will make that situation even worse.

04:01There are estimates that up to 27% of nursing homes indicating that they will be forced to shut down,

04:09and 58% are reducing their staff as a result of the bill.

04:13Anybody want to comment on the impact of this legislation on nursing homes?

04:18Rob?

04:19Well, as you know, Medicaid is how most people pay for nursing homes.

04:24Medicaid also provides reimbursement to people for Medicare costs who are living in nursing homes.

04:29That's going to be restricted.

04:31I know this from a personal experience.

04:34Many of us do.

04:35Nursing homes provide crucial assistance for people in their later years.

04:39If they can't go, which is what it means, there's incredible suffering that's going to take place,

04:44and intolerable burdens on the families as a result.

04:49Okay.

04:50Well, thank you very much.

04:52Well, among the half-truths being promulgated, the nursing homes are carved out of this legislation.

04:57So, I'm not sure how they're going to be affected.

04:59That said, let's go with some real...

05:01Oh, Mr. Chairman.

05:02No, I'm sorry.

05:03I got the gavel.

05:04No, I got the gavel, Bernie.

05:05This is about cybersecurity.

05:07Thank you all for those...

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