Bernie Sanders Commends Witness For Efforts To Cancel Medical Debt Through State Funding

2 months ago

Earlier this month, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) questioned witnesses on medical debt during a Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee hearing.

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Transcript

00:00Let me begin the round of questioning by mentioning that last week the governor of Illinois signed

00:12legislation into law to cancel up to $1 billion in medical debt with an investment of just

00:18$10 million in state funding.

00:21That sounds like a pretty good deal.

00:22We're talking about one cent on the dollar to cancel debt.

00:26Dr. El-Sayed, is that similar to what you're doing in Michigan?

00:30Why is that an effective way to go forward to take the burden of medical debt off of

00:36the backs of vulnerable people?

00:37Yeah, thank you for the question.

00:39So the ratio of one cent on the dollar is exactly what we're pursuing in Wayne County.

00:44And it demonstrates the fact that though prices have gotten higher, those nominal prices are

00:50somewhat arbitrary.

00:52And the reality is that after non-payment of a medical debt, the value of that debt

00:57falls precipitously.

00:58And so we have a situation where I would argue that it's actually exactly the inverse of

01:04what my esteemed colleague, Dr. Ippolito, shared, which is that we have a situation

01:09right now where hospitals and providers, in effect, will create a certain number and say

01:15that's the price of the care.

01:18And people can't afford it, but they bank on the fact that a lot of people, because

01:21of the kind of beggaring that they get, will try and do so anyway.

01:25How many people do you think you can help by removing their debt for how much money

01:30in Wayne County?

01:31We estimate about 300,000.

01:33For how much?

01:34For about $7 million.

01:35That sounds like a pretty good deal.

01:38Dr. Messack, in America, one out of every four cancer patients either declared bankruptcy

01:47or lost their homes to eviction or foreclosure as a result of medical debt.

01:51Is there any other country in the world where that takes place?

01:56No, not in the rich world.

01:59Countries as rich or close to as rich as the United States do not see this level of catastrophic

02:03health expenditure, not even close.

02:04We outpace the nearest OECD country by more than two times.

02:08So you're right, that that's not something we see.

02:11All right.

02:12And if I am diagnosed with a terrible disease, I worry about that a whole lot.

02:17My family worries about that.

02:19What impact on my health and my well-being does the worry about financial ruin mean to

02:25me?

02:26Thank you, Senator.

02:27As Dr. Chino said, and as I mentioned in my testimony, there are so many consequences

02:31to worrying about health.

02:33And we know that patients who are in financial distress after a diagnosis, who are facing

02:37these medical debts, do not adhere to treatment recommendations.

02:40They're more likely to die.

02:42And this has been proven time and time again, from the RAND study in the 70s to the QJE

02:47study just this year.

02:48So it's a tremendous health consequence.

02:51Ms. Wood and Dr. Chino, you both have dealt with serious, in one case fatal, illness in

02:59the family.

03:02What role were bill collectors playing during this process when you were worried about your

03:05kids and you were worried about your husband, Dr. Chino?

03:08Ms. Wood?

03:09I think it's just the ever-constant threat of someone calling to inquire for something

03:13that we were not able to pay.

03:15Does that happen often?

03:17I would say multiple times a day.

03:19Multiple times a day?

03:20Yeah, I would say oftentimes we were in the NICU visiting our children and we would get

03:24calls from debt collectors asking for payment before the boys were ever discharged from

03:28the hospital.

03:29It caused a tremendous amount of stress on our family to the point that we debated not

03:33answering our phone many times if we were not with the boys because we were worried

03:36if it was the hospital or a debt collector calling.

03:39But we had to answer because, of course, it was the hospital.

03:41So your kid's in the hospital and you're getting multiple calls a day?

03:46Correct.

03:47From bill collectors?

03:48We had two children.

03:49So double the calls.

03:50Dr. Chino, do you want to elaborate on that?

03:53I just want to say how common this is and how heartbreaking it is that I know from my

03:57personal experience but also that our patients are experiencing on a day-to-day basis how

04:02excruciating these calls are, how harassing and threatening the messages are.

04:07I have patients who

04:08Can you elaborate on that a little bit?

04:09Threatening?

04:10What does that mean?

04:11You're dealing with somebody who is very, very ill, right?

04:12That's your main concern.

04:13What does that mean, threatening?

04:16So, you know, saying this is going to affect your credit, your ability to do anything in

04:20the future, we're going to take your home, we're going to take your car, your future

04:25is over.

04:27Basically, I have found that debt collectors will play every dirty trick that they can

04:33to try to get you to give them some money.

04:37And it's just one extra layer of stress that when you're dealing with, you know, for me,

04:42my husband was in the ICU for a month, it's just intolerable.

04:51To say the least.

04:52I mean, so what we're talking about is a wife worried about her husband in the ICU or a

04:58mother worried about her kids struggling for their lives having to field off calls from

05:03debt collectors.

05:04I mean, if that's not obscene, I don't know what is obscene.

Bernie Sanders Commends Witness For Efforts To Cancel Medical Debt Through State Funding

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