The growing problem of crushing medical debt was raised by Senator Bernie Sanders in a national address Tuesday on the American working class. We hear from patients and discuss the fight to stop hospitals from suing patients, garnishing wages and putting liens on homes of people facing medical bills they can\u2019t afford. We are joined by Elisabeth Benjamin, vice president of Health Initiatives at the Community Service Society of New York and co-founder of the Health Care for All New York campaign.
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\nThis is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
\nAMY GOODMAN:\u00a0This is\u00a0Democracy Now!, democracynow.org,\u00a0The War and Peace Report. I\u2019m Amy Goodman, with Juan Gonz\u00e1lez.
\nIn a major address Tuesday evening from the U.S. Capitol, independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont gave a national address on the state of America\u2019s working class. He focused in part on the growing problem of medical debt.
\nSEN. BERNIE SANDERS:\u00a0I see \u2014 I see a nation where over 85 million of our people are either uninsured or underinsured. And as all of you know, we are the only major country on Earth not to guarantee healthcare to all people.
\nI see a nation where, unbelievably, over 500,000 people go bankrupt each year because of medically related debt. You got that? You were sick, you had a cancer operation, and you know what you get? You go bankrupt as a result. Does that make any sense to anybody?
\nI see a nation \u2014 and we don\u2019t talk about this at all; virtually nobody talks about this \u2014 where over 68,000 people die each year because they can\u2019t afford the healthcare they need. I have talked to doctor after doctor, in Vermont and around the country, telling me about patients who walked in the door terribly ill. And the doctor says, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you come when your symptoms \u2014 when you first felt your symptoms?\u201d They said, \u201cI don\u2019t have any insurance. I can\u2019t afford to pay it.\u201d And thousands of thousands of people finally crawl into the doctor\u2019s office, and it\u2019s too late, and they die, in the United States of America.
\nAMY GOODMAN:\u00a0Senator Bernie Sanders speaking Tuesday night in a major address on the state of America\u2019s working class. To see the\u00a0whole address, go to democracynow.org.
\nBut today we\u2019re going to look at how more patients are speaking out as they struggle with medical debt. The healthcare reform group We the Patients New York, a project of the Community Service Society, has spoken to many patients. This is Anthony Calafiura\u2019s story.
\nANTHONY CALAFIURA:\u00a0So, slightly over a year ago from now, I was committed to the psych ward after a failed suicide attempt. I was there for 14 days. It genuinely helped me, until I received my bill afterwards. But, thankfully, I was under my estranged father\u2019s insurance. But even then and currently today, I am over $2,000 in debt, and my mother has refused to help me pay, so I have essentially been forced to kind of figure out this whole situation by myself.
\nAnd when I was committed, I was 17. So, after I got released, when I tried calling, like, the hospitals, there wasn\u2019t much I could do, because I was still a minor. And it just felt like a circle, and I never really got, like, actual advice on what to do.
\nNow that I\u2019m 18, it\u2019s been like six months since I\u2019ve been released, so all my debt has been transferred to the debt collection agency. Nobody around me really knows what to do. And this whole situation has just been causing me so much stress. It\u2019s like every time I check my mail, every time I receive an 866 call, which now I know is the debt collection agency\u2019s number, every time I see a minor text, I\u2019m just reminded of how much debt I\u2019m in, and it just makes me really anxious, and it\u2019s been really not good for my mental health, which is why I\u2019m even in debt in the first place, was to get better.<\/p>\n