'Follow the Money': Sanders Explains Why Medicare for All Stalled in Congress
"Since 1998, in our corrupt political system, the private healthcare sector has spent more than $10.6 billion on lobbying and over the last 30 years it has spent more than $1.7 billion on campaign contributions to maintain the status quo."
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders took to the Senate floor Tuesday to call out the for-profit healthcare industry for thwarting progress toward the Medicare for All-type system that people in other developed nations enjoy.
"The American people increasingly understand, as I do, that healthcare is a human right, not a privilege."
"While it is not discussed much in the corporate media or here in the halls of Congress, we have today in the United States the most inefficient, bureaucratic, and expensive healthcare system in the world," Sanders (I-Vt.)—who in May introduced the Medicare for All Act of 2022—said during his nearly 27-minute speech.
"That's not just what I believe," the democratic socialist added. "That's what the American people know to be true because of their lived experience with the healthcare system."
Pointing to polling that shows only 12% of Americans "believe that healthcare in general is handled very well or extremely well in the United States" and that two-thirds of Americans agree that it's the government's responsibility to ensure everyone has health coverage, Sanders said that "the American people increasingly understand, as I do, that healthcare is a human right, not a privilege, and must end the international embarrassment of the United States being the only major country on Earth that does not guarantee healthcare to all of its citizens."
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/09/13/follow-money-sanders-explains-why-medicare-all-stalled-congress
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