FOX "Interview With Senator Bernie Sanders" - Transcript
Interview
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MS. KELLY: Well, President Obama and Democratic leaders pushing hard for a massive overhaul of the U.S. health care system, promising to work in a bipartisan fashion, but at yesterday's meeting on the topic, the White House guest list included 23 Democrats, one independent who caucuses with the Democrats and zero Republicans.
Sound bipartisan to you?
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is a member of the Senate Health Committee and he is the independent who was invited to that meeting. He's my guest this morning.
Senator, good morning to you.
SEN. SANDERS: Good morning.
MS. KELLY: All right. So what's going on? Why all Democrats and you and no Republicans?
SEN. SANDERS: Well, I think the Republicans are going to get their chance to meet with the president, and I think everybody wants to hear what Republicans have to say.
The issue, Megyn, is that, right now, our country is facing a major health care crisis, 46 million Americans with no health insurance, even more are underinsured, and most importantly, we end up spending almost twice as much per person on health care as any other nation. And what we as a Congress have got to do is understand how does that happen? How do we move to comprehensive universal health care coverage for every man, woman and child and do that in a cost- effective way so that we're not spending any more money than we're currently spending. That's the challenge that we face.
MS. KELLY: And when you say you want some sort of universal health care, are you talking about a government-run system for everyone in this country, sir? Or do you just mean a government-run system for those who currently lack health insurance?
SEN. SANDERS: Well, my own view is that when private health insurance companies are ripping off the American people, when they're making outrageous profits, when they cause an administrative disaster so that in California -- if you can believe this, one-third of every health care dollar is spent in administration, clearly, we have a whole complex maze within our system. I, personally, believe that we should move toward a single-payer state administered system. At the very least, we need a strong, public system within the overall health care approach to make sure that all of our people have comprehensive health care.
MS. KELLY: You know, that statement -- the position you're advocating strikes fear in the hearts of many Americans because they look at systems akin to the one you're proposing, in Canada and Great Britain and they see serious problems. In Great Britain, for example, the World Health Organization said 25,000 people died in unnecessary cancer deaths last year because of the lack of provision of care --
SEN. SANDERS: Well, well --
MS. KELLY: Let me just finish, let me just finish and then you can respond. The Institute of Economic Affairs says that Britain's services are, quote, "Just about the worst in the developed world, whereas America's are the best in the developed world," and people don't want --
SEN. SANDERS: Well, Megyn, I'm afraid it depends on the studies that you look at, in fact, most of the studies out there suggest that despite the fact we spend far more per capita than any other system and as you know, Megyn, all of the systems are different. We spend almost three times per person what they do in Great Britain. We can do a lot better than they do. And if you look at the outcomes, the health care outcomes in terms of infant mortality, in terms of life expectancy, other health care outcomes, we do very, very poorly compared to most other industrialized countries which have national health care systems, spending far less per capita than we do in this country, by the way, let's be clear --
MS. KELLY: There's a debate on that --
SEN. SANDERS: Because 60 million --
MS. KELLY: I have to say just reading the World Health Organization materials and this other group's materials --
SEN. SANDERS: Well, I have --
MS. KELLY: They say that's just not true --
SEN. SANDERS: Megyn, I'll tell you what, Megyn, Megyn, I have all of those studies as well and will be able to tell you on most of the health care outcomes, we do much poorly in terms of life expectancy. We're not doing particularly well compared to many other countries. In terms of infant mortality, we are way, way higher than many other countries, and yet we spend almost twice as much.
Now, I don't think that it makes a lot of sense from a moral point of view or an economic point of view that we spend so much and we get so little. In America today --
MS. KELLY: But the other problem is under the Democrats' proposal, President Obama, we're going to spend even more, we're going to spend upwards of $1 trillion, some say a trillion and a half to get what you want, to get some sort of coverage for these other folks --
SEN. SANDERS: Well, first of all --
MS. KELLY: And as you know, Senator --
SEN. SANDERS: Well, you don't know --
MS. KELLY: We don't have the money.
SEN. SANDERS: Megyn, Megyn, to begin with, I'm glad that you know what the result is going to be; I'm on the Health Committee. I don't know what the result is. Nobody knows what the result is.
MS. KELLY: Well, all the experts are estimating it's over a trillion dollars; it's at least a trillion and a half to pay for this --
SEN. SANDERS: Well, I'm glad that the experts are estimating it, but they have not seen any paper because there is no plan --
MS. KELLY: Well, don't you know how much it's going to cost, Senator? You're the one who is proposing it. How much is it going to cost and how are we going to pay for it?
SEN. SANDERS: Megyn, I'm on the committee. We're meeting on it right now. There is no plan, as you well know. You have the Finance Committee working on it. You've got the Health Committee working on it. There is no plan. That is what is being involved right now. But certainly, everybody understands that what we're spending today in this country is far too much per person; it's not just the government. You have an average family, people are watching this program, a family of four is spending $13,000, $14,000 for health insurance out of their own pockets. That is outrageous. That is unsustainable.
So we need to move to far more cost-effective health care system than we currently have.
MS. KELLY: Cost-effective certainly sounds good, but I'll tell you I'm getting my numbers, one and a half trillion from people on your side of the aisle who are advocating, who are advocating the program, who want this sort of health care --
SEN. SANDERS: Megyn --
MS. KELLY: Let me finish my point --
SEN. SANDERS: Megyn, Megyn --
MS. KELLY: Listen, I let you speak, Senator, let me make my point, who are advocating an overhaul of the health care system. Those are the folks -- people who support your position who say it's going to be at least a trillion and a half and as you know, people are concerned because they don't know where that money is going to come from --
SEN. SANDERS: And Megyn --
MS. KELLY: Last word and I've got to go --
SEN. SANDERS: There is no plan. Second of all, if we do nothing what everybody understands is their health care costs are going to rise precipitously, making it very, very difficult for families to afford what they have.
MS. KELLY: All right. Senator Sanders, thank you so much for coming on and offering your point of view.
SEN. SANDERS: Thank you.
MS. KELLY: We appreciate you being here.
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