Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) had their health care bill blocked by Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) on Friday.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to vacate the quorum call.
00:10Without objection.
00:11Mr. President.
00:12Senator Morgan.
00:13Notwithstanding rule 22, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Wyden, Senator Sanders and Senator
00:20Scott be recognized for up to 25 minutes and that following the remarks, the Majority Leader
00:25be recognized.
00:27Is there objection?
00:28Mr. President, I come.
00:29Without objection.
00:30Thank you, Mr. President.
00:31I come to the floor.
00:32My colleague from Vermont, Senator Sanders, to pass a set of critical improvements to
00:36Americans' health care system.
00:38This legislation is overwhelmingly bipartisan, fully paid for and targeted at two objectives
00:44every senator ought to support.
00:46Improving health care for Americans and cracking down on the middlemen who take advantage of
00:50the system.
00:51Five hundred and ninety-seven days ago, the Senate Finance Committee passed the most comprehensive
00:57legislation in history to address the pharmacy benefit manager predatory business practices
01:03and it was passed by a vote of 26 to 1.
01:06Four hundred and ninety-three days ago, the Senate Finance Committee passed another piece
01:09of health care legislation that improves mental health care for Americans with Medicaid, expands
01:15and strengthens telehealth and more PBM policies by a vote, again, of 26 to 0.
01:21Since that time, negotiations about how to sign these policies into law have been fatally
01:25intertwined with a dysfunctional debate over congressional appropriations as the public
01:30can see on full display this week.
01:32These policies are too important to leave behind due to an unrelated disagreement.
01:37Community pharmacists are counting on this legislation.
01:40Doctors who don't want to see a pay cut are counting on this legislation.
01:44Seniors and working families who want better care at a lower cost are counting on this
01:49legislation.
01:50So the time to act is now.
01:52In December, Democrats and Republicans struck a deal on this bill.
01:56I have the press release on my website to prove it.
01:59It was introduced in the House and set for passage.
02:02But along came Elon Musk and his now familiar wrecking ball.
02:05With one tweet, he killed the entire package for reasons that had nothing to do with the
02:09bill before the Senate today.
02:12Musk even had the gall to tweet, what is a pharmacy benefit manager, less than two weeks
02:16after he single-handedly killed the bill, Mr. President, while this unelected billionaire
02:20rifles through Americans' private information and earned benefits, claiming to be looking
02:25for waste, fraud, and abuse.
02:26He doesn't even know about the middlemen who skim billions off the federal government.
02:31Since Musk's tweeting adventure, 237 independent pharmacies have closed their doors.
02:36That's nearly three small businesses closing every day.
02:39Our bill includes critical protections that stop the giant PBMs from bullying even more
02:44local pharmacies into the abyss.
02:46Every day matters.
02:47That's why it's critical to act now.
02:49Now I'd like to yield to the ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
02:53Committee, Senator Sanders, so he can explain the important pieces of this bill that are
02:58in his committee's jurisdiction that also need to pass as soon as possible.
03:03Senator Sanders.
03:04Well, thank you very much.
03:05Senator from Vermont.
03:08Let me thank Senator Wyden for his outstanding work as the former chairman of the Finance
03:13Committee and now as the ranking member.
03:16Mr. President, I get around Vermont a bit.
03:21I get around the country a bit.
03:23And generally speaking, when I talk to a group of people, I ask them a simple question.
03:27I say, what do you think about the health care system?
03:30Is it working well or is it broken?
03:33Is it dysfunctional?
03:35And overwhelmingly, the hands go up that the American health care system today is broken.
03:42It is dysfunctional.
03:44It is cruel.
03:46And what people understand is the function of the American health care system today is
03:52not to provide quality health care to all of our people, which in fact goes on in every
03:58other major country on earth.
04:00It is to make huge profits for the drug companies and the insurance companies.
04:07Mr. President, the current health care system is a system in which we spend twice as much
04:15per capita on health care as do the people of any other nation.
04:20Astronomical sum of money.
04:22And yet, despite all that money, 85 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured.
04:31And the cost of health care keeps going up every single year.
04:35One out of four Americans cannot afford the cost of the drugs that their doctors prescribe.
04:43And unbelievably, it is a system in which 60,000 Americans die each year because they
04:52can't get to a doctor on time.
04:55It is a system in which we don't have enough doctors.
04:59We don't have enough nurses.
05:01We don't have enough dentists.
05:03We don't have enough pharmacists.
05:06But the good news is the insurance companies and the drug companies are making huge profits.
05:13The current health care system is a system in which our life expectancy is lower than
05:20any other major country.
05:22And if you're working class in America, you're going to live seven years shorter life than
05:28if you are wealthy.
05:30It is a system in which some 500,000 people go bankrupt each year because of medically
05:38related debt.
05:40It is a system where in large parts of our country, rural hospitals are being shut down
05:48and where people, even with decent insurance, have to travel hours in order to find a doctor.
05:57Mr. President, as Senator Wyden indicated, in December, after months and months of difficult
06:05negotiations, and I want to congratulate Senator Wyden, Senator Crapo, and all the people involved
06:11in those negotiations, we made some progress on this health care crisis by coming together
06:20on a bipartisan and bicameral agreement on a health care package.
06:27That legislation, while more modest than I would have wanted, would have provided $4.5
06:33billion for community health centers this year and $4.6 billion next year, up 15% from
06:41a few years ago.
06:44Community health centers provide primary health care to 32 million Americans, working
06:51class, lower income people, do a phenomenal job, but they're under financial stress.
06:58That legislation would have provided $350 million a year over two years for the National
07:03Health Service Corps, so we could attract young people to go out and work, young doctors
07:09to work in underserved areas.
07:11And it would have provided $300 million a year for teaching health centers.
07:17It would have also lowered the outrageous price of prescription drugs by taking on the
07:22greed of pharmacy benefit managers.
07:25It was a bipartisan bill.
07:31Just before that bill was going to be passed, Elon Musk, the wealthiest man in the world
07:39who does not have to worry about whether he and his friends can afford health care,
07:46he sent out a series of tweets, some of them outrageously dishonest, to kill this legislation,
07:53and he succeeded in doing so.
07:56So today, Mr. President, it is important that we take a step forward and undo the damage
08:07that Mr. Musk caused.
08:11And the legislation that we are proposing today would, in fact, begin to take us back
08:19where we were.
08:20It would increase funding for community health centers and do all of the other important
08:26work that Senator Wyden wanted.
08:29We have a health care crisis in America today.
08:33The CR that we're going to be voting on in a little while will make a bad situation worse.
08:38This is an opportunity to tell the American people that we are aware of the health care
08:43crisis.
08:44We are at least trying to do something.
08:48And I would yield back to Senator Wyden.
08:50Mr. President, I just want to thank my colleague.
08:52Senator Morgan.
08:53Mr. President, just very briefly, I want to thank my colleague.
08:56We have been working, as we've indicated, for months and months because Americans with
09:01respect to health care feel like they're getting hit by a wrecking ball here in terms
09:05of the costs and inability to get quality care.
09:08So with that, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate Committee on Finance be discharged
09:12from further consideration of S. 891, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration
09:17that the Wyden substitute amendment, which is at the desk, be considered and agreed to.
09:21The bill as amended be considered, read a third time, and passed, and that the motion
09:25to reconsider be considered, made, and laid upon the table.
09:29Is there objection?
09:30Mr. President.
09:31Senator from Florida.
09:32I object.
09:33Objection is heard.
09:38That's it?
09:42So here we have a health care crisis.
09:45Senator from Vermont.
09:46I would ask.
09:48We have a health care crisis.
09:5285 million uninsured or underinsured people dying because they can't afford health care.
09:58We have the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs.
10:04We have reached a bipartisan conclusion to go forward in a modest way, but it would have
10:11some impact in approving health care in America, and my Republican colleague objects.
10:17That's about it.
10:18Well, I hope the American people are watching.
10:21Thank you, Mr. President.