Sen. Bernie Sanders: Health-care bill could spark "a revolution in primary health care"

Tell me a bit about the provisions to expand community health centers that you added into the Senate bill.

In most areas of Vermont right now, you can drive to a community health center near you where you’ll get excellent quality primary health care. If you have no health insurance, you’re charged on a sliding scale basis. If you have Medicare or Medicaid, they’re delighted to have you. And private health insurance, that’s great, too. We’ve gone from two community health centers in Vermont to eight. And those eight centers have 41 separate locations and are used by about 100,000 people – and that’s in a population a bit over 600,000. So we know they work.

As of this point, we have added $10 billion for the program in the Senate bill. Congressman Jim Clyburn has added $14 billion in the House bill. And my hope is the conference committee will go with the $14 billion. What we would do with $14 billion is expand access from the current 20 million people served by community health centers to 45 million people. It will mean establishing CHCs and their satellites in 10,000 new communities. What it also means is that we will dramatically increase funding for the National Health Service Corps so we have an additional 20,000 doctors, dentists and nurses. It’s a revolution in primary health care if we get what I hope we get.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/12/sen_bernie_sanders_health_care.html

...we should primary him. Of course, that will be difficult with an independent, but if we think hard, I'm sure we can find a way.

:spray:

is what it does. But if it gets these people on board, I'm all for it. I'd rather put the money in creating health care plans that really work, or increasing Medicaid to 150% of poverty.

Imagine an expansion like this existing alone in a single concise bill. I wonder why we accept those things cannot happen?

he was forced to accept. What I don't understand is why many of the Democratic Senators who were not happy about the bill either, didn't make similar bargains before handing over their votes. Since that's the game in DC, votes are bought and sold, what stopped them from making a similar bargain rather than giving their votes away? Lieberman and Nelson played the game for their own benefit also, but the Democrats just gave away their votes for nothing.

Sanders would make a great president. But for now I'm glad he's in the Senate. The only hope now for this country is to find more people like him and fill Congress with smart, ethical people who cannot be bought by corporations.

that we should look at districts where we could get good progressive Dems in office.

However, it's unrealistic to think that we can get good progressive Dems in every district in the country. For example, Michelle Bachman is very popular in her district.

are popular is because of ignorance. Not a lack of intelligence, just a lack of knowledge. The only people who have been talking to the red states for at least a couple of decades, are Fox and Limbaugh et al. Democrats basically accepted that it was useless to even try.

I believe that the more information people get, the more of them will start thinking for themselves. One of the biggest failures of the left, was to allow the airwaves to be completely taken over by the rightwing noise machine for almost two decades. I still remember not so long ago, not being able to find a liberal station on the radio. No matter what time of the day it was, on talk radio, all that was available was Rush, Hannity, Savage et al 24/7. And the left bought the idea that this was because 'there was no market for liberal programming'.

As late as 2003, rightwingers were telling me that. But when Air America aired for the first time, considering the mountain of misinformation that was out there, it proved there was such a market.

I feel the same way about the so-called red states. A relentless effort to inform people will eventually pay off. But I have to admit that if all I heard all day long was Fox, Hannity and Rush, it would be difficult to even entertain the thought that this was not the reality we live in.

As a teacher who has had some of the most difficult kids who supposedly were 'unteachable', I have faith that given the opportunity, a majority of the people are capable of learning and thinking for themselves. Personally I think that working for a really free press should be a top priority on the list of things to do to save this country from the downward slide it is on.

Thanks, Bernie.
It takes a "Democratic Socialist" to get something done FOR The People in Washington.