WASHINGTON, July 9 – Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has compiled a new booklet – The Health Care Crisis: Letters from Vermont and America – collecting some of the more than 4,000 letters he has received describing real-life experiences with health care in Vermont and across America. 

“In poignant and heartbreaking terms, the letters describe the pain and outrage that people are experiencing with our dysfunctional health care system,” the senator said. 

A man in Swanton, Vt., told the story of his younger brother, a combat-decorated veteran of the Vietnam conflict, who died three weeks after being diagnosed with colon cancer. “He was laid off from his job and could not afford COBRA coverage. When he was in enough pain to see a doctor, it was too late…The attending doctor said that if he had only sought treatment earlier he would still be alive.”

A woman in Eagle, Idaho, wrote of “a beautiful, intelligent, hard working small business owner who died because she couldn't afford to buy health insurance for her family nor her employees…I will never forgive my county for allowing the greed of the insurance companies to limit her opportunity for preventable health care…”

A physician in Colchester, Vt., spoke for other doctors when she wrote that “we waste huge amounts of time getting approval for routine medications and treatment…It is infuriating to have to play ‘Mother, May I?’ with bureaucrats to get basic, necessary care authorized.”

Those are among the stories in the booklet that flesh out the unacceptable statistics that 46 million Americans lack any health insurance and that even more are underinsured; that more than 18,000 Americans die every year because they don’t have access to a doctor of their own; that 1 million Americans will go bankrupt this year because of medically-related debt; and that, despite spending almost twice as much per person, we lag far behind many other nations in such health care outcomes as life expectancy, infant mortality and preventable deaths. 

“In my view, the fight for universal and comprehensive health care is the civil rights battle of our time,” Sanders said. “Like the other great struggles in our history that have made us a more democratic and just society, victory will require a strong and united grassroots movement that is prepared to take on the very powerful and wealthy special interests that benefit from this failing health care system.”

For a printable copy of the booklet, click here.