Coronavirus pandemic shows 'dysfunctionality' of US health care: Bernie Sanders
The coronavirus pandemic, also known as COVID-19, was the focal point of discussion during the latest Democratic presidential debate on Sunday, this time just between former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Both candidates criticized the slow response from the U.S. government, and the lack of available testing kits, but Sanders made it a point to emphasize the flaws in the American health care system that he contends are making the crisis even worse.
“The dysfunctionality of the current health care system is obviously apparent,” Sanders said. “Clearly we are not prepared, and Trump only exacerbates the crisis.”
The Vermont senator criticized Trump for “undermining” the doctors and scientists trying to inform the public of how to best prepare for the coronavirus.
Trump has made several inaccurate claims about the coronavirus, and has directly contradicted public health officials on several occasions. While touring the CDC headquarters in Atlanta, he said: “Anybody that needs a test can have a test.” However, access to coronavirus tests is still extremely limited, an issue that’s borne heavy criticism.
He also asserted that the completion of the border “wall” along the U.S.-Mexico border would help protect Americans against coronavirus, despite the fact that CDC director Robert Redfield said a wall would not be effective.
A lack of doctors
Sanders, a major proponent of a single-payer health care system, stressed that the current pandemic and response from the government underscored the problems with the American health care system.
A major problem that’s arisen in other countries, and what many are warning could happen in the U.S. soon enough, is that there aren’t enough health care workers or hospital beds to treat the number of patients infected with the virus.
The U.S. number of physicians per 1,000 people is just 2.6, according to Deutsche Global Bank Research, World Development Indicators, and Haver Analytics. That ranks far behind other leading countries, like Sweden (5.4), Germany (4.2), Italy (4.1), and U.K. (2.8).
“When we spend twice as much per capita on health care as any other nation, one might expect that we’d have enough doctors all over this country,” Sanders said. “One might expect that we’d have affordable prescription drugs. One might expect that we are preparing effectively for a pandemic, that we were ready with ventilators, with the ICUs, with the test kits that we need. We are not.”
‘It has nothing to do with Medicare for all’
Sanders said that the lack of preparation was a reason why there should be Medicare for all, which has been one of the central plans of his campaign and would eliminate private health insurance in favor of a single-payer government system.