Bernie Sanders addresses a crowd in San Francisco to oppose Republican health-care proposals—specifically the Graham-Cassidy bill—arguing it would throw millions off insurance (citing figures for California and nationwide) and praising Senator John McCain for opposing the bill. He calls for continued activism to block the legislation and advocates for a Medicare for All single-payer system (noting he introduced such legislation in the Senate with 16 co-sponsors), criticizing the U.S. for spending ~18% of GDP on a for-profit, dysfunctional health-care system.
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Thousand young Americans. And we are telling Mr. Trump and the Republican leadership they are not going to give huge tax breaks to the 1% and then cut back on education, environmental protection and the needs of our children. Today, the immediate crisis we face from Trump and the Republican leadership is another piece of horrific legislation that would throw 32 million Americans off of the health care they currently have. I want you all to think, get beyond politics for a moment and think if today you are an American dealing with a life threatening illness, maybe you have canc, maybe you have heart disease, maybe you have diabetes, and what keeps you alive is the health insurance that you currently have, how cruel, how immoral it is to say to those millions of Americans, we are going to take away that health insurance that keeps you alive. And we say to Mr. Trump and the Republican leadership, you are not going to allow thousands of Americans every single year to die unnecessarily. We're not going to let you pass that horrific legislation. We defeated a Republican proposal that would have thrown 23 million Americans off of health care. We defeated a Republican proposal that would have thrown 22 million people off of health care that would have thrown 16 million people off of health insurance. And now we are going to defeat another proposal which is even worse than the previous ones. Now, this particular proposal, the so called Graham Cassidy bill, would be especially devastating for those states like Vermont and California that have done the right thing by expanding Medicaid. In California alone, you would lose more than $55 billion in federal health care money over a six year period. More money than any other state in the country. In this state alone, if you can believe it, just in California, over four and a half million people would lose the health insurance they currently have. And in California and all across this country, if you older worker, you're 60, you're 62 years of age, understand that if this legislation passes, your premiums are going to skyrocket, they're going to soar. And millions of older workers in this country at a time when you need health insurance, most will not be able to afford that health insurance. In the midst of all of that bad news, I am very happy to give you some very good news. And that is that some of you may know just a few hours ago, Senator John McCain of Arizona has just announced that he cannot, and I quote, in good conscience vote for the Graham Cassidy proposal. Thank you, John McCain. And John McCain has the conscience. And I wish very much that the rest of the Republican leadership had that conscience as well. I've known John for many, many years and we have very fundamental political disagreements. But over the years he has shown incredible courage not only as a prisoner of war, but also as the co Author of the McCain Fine Gold Finance law which attempted to get a handle on one of the great crises we face and that is billionaires buying elections. And John of course was one of the Republicans to vote against the last Republican bill and helped defeat that. But Even with Senator McCain's opposition, our struggle on this legislation is not over. And our job is to continue to make sure that the Republicans do not get the 50 votes they need, which plus the Vice President's vote will give them a victory. So I beg of you, please do everything you can, get the word out all over this country to your friends to tell them that no Republican should vote for this disastrous bill. And if they do, they will pay a very heavy political price for that. And while we have got to wage an all out battle to defeat this horrific legislation, we have also got to understand that in terms of health care, maintaining the status quo is just not good enough. Our job is not just to prevent tens of millions of Americans from being thrown off the health insurance they currently have. Our job is to join every other major your country on earth and guarantee health care to all as a right, not a privilege. The time has come for a Medicare for all single payer program and I am proud to stand before you having introduced that legislation in the Senate with 16 co sponsors. Today we stand together in saying that in this great country, health care is a right, not a privilege. Today we say that we are sick and tired and the nurses know this better than anyone of seeing people who are sick not able to go to the doctor or the nurse because they have no health insurance or their deductibles or co payments are too high. Today we begin the debate vital to the future of our economy as to why it is that in our country we are now spending almost twice as much per capita on health care as do the people of any other country. Why is it that we are spending in this dysfunctional health care system almost 18% of our GDP on health care. A number which if we don't change the system will only rise in the years to come. Today we say that the function of a rational health care system is not to make billions in profit for the drug companies and the insurance companies. Function of a rational health care system is to provide health care to all people when they need it and not to argue with the insurance insurance companies as to whether or not they are covered for the procedures that they paid for.
