we have 80 million people, don, who are uninsured or underinsured, yet we end up spending almost two times as much per capita on health care as do the people of any other country. the function of health care in america today is to make billions in profits for the drug companies and the insurance companies. we need a health care system designed to work for ordinary americans, not make the ceos of the drug companies even richer than they are. okay. let me ask you this. listen, you studied this more than i have, i m sure. if vice president biden is able to dramatically reduce costs for people by increasing subsidies and offer a medicare opt-in to expand coverage, isn t that a huge step toward your stated goal of making health care a right no. and not a privilege? what you re talking make it more affordable yes and no. don, yes and no. you re looking at a guy who not only helped write the affordable care act but probably worked as hard as any member of the senate to de-
to dramatically reduce costs for people by increasing subsidies and offer a medicare opt-in to expand coverage, isn t that a huge step toward your stated goal of making health care a right no. and not a privilege? what you re talking make it more affordable yes and no. don, yes and no. you re looking at a guy who not only helped write the affordable care act but probably worked as hard as any member of the senate to defend the affordable care act against trump and the republican effort to repeal it, but we have got to go further. when you re talking about subsidies, what you re talking about is spending even more money, in this case, taxpayer money on a dysfunctional, wasteful and bureaucratic system. we need a simple system. when you walk into the doctor, you get the health care you need without premiums, without co-payments, without deductibles. we need freedom of choice in terms of the doctor that you go to or the hospital that you go to. the current system is unbe
canada. not exactly what you would call a socialist country. you can go to any doctor you want, you can go to any hospital you want. they end up spending 50% less than we do per capita on health care. of course, the prescription drugs are much, much lower. the time is ong overdue for us to have the courage to take on the pharmaceutical industry that rips us off every day, to take on the insurance companies and do what every country does, make health care a right. medicare right now is a good program. that s expand it to all americans. but do you feel that retch cans will try to use the socialism tag? do you think they will try to use that to center voters? of course they will. how do you deal with it? you say, you like social security? socialist program. you like the veterans administration, health care that veterans get? socialist. do you like medicare right now?
shareholders than we do about workers. the company that wants to pollute our air and water they care more about profits than they care about the well-being of the people in their community. the drug companies, the opioid crisis. we have seen from documents, those families were producing or feelings, they care more about profits and one of the most addiction opioid that they could find in the people they would serve. we want to give healthcare a right not a play bridge, its interest committees a better profit than covering patients. they will deny that second day in the hospital for the medicine you need. that s where we have the corruption of capitalism. the corruption of capitalism is the definition. we are trained to fight against the worst instinct of companies to care more about the shareholder value than their employees, workers or the people
grow. because we care today more about shareholders than we do about workers. the company that wants to pollute our air and water they care more about profits than they care about the well-being of the people in their community. the drug companies, the opioid crisis. we have seen from documents, those families were producing or feelings, they care more about profits and one of the most addiction opioid that they could find in the people they would serve. we want to give healthcare a right not a play bridge, its interest committees a better profit than covering patients. they will deny that second day in the hospital for the medicine you need. that s where we have the corruption of capitalism. the corruption of capitalism is the definition. we are trained to fight against the worst instinct of companies to care more about the shareholder value than their