If primary care funding is increased by $130 billion over the next five years, the U.S. would come close to providing such care to every person in the country, Sen. Bernie Sanders said in a June 28 opinion piece in The Guardian.
An additional $40 billion over the same period would also substantially address the labor shortage in healthcare, said Mr. Sanders, chair of the Senate health, education, labor and pensions committee.
Mr. Sanders admitted it was an ambitious target, but argued the annual $34 billion investment figure still pales compared to investment in the Defense Department, which received more than twice that in increases last year alone.
The U.S. spends less than 7 percent of its healthcare budget on primary care. Most developed countries spend between 10 percent and 15 percent, Mr. Sanders pointed out.
Federally qualified community health centers are the backbone for such care, especially for those with relatively limited access to healthcare. Still, millions of Amercians are faced with costly emergency room care with only limited access to such facilities, Mr. Sanders said.
Preventive care at such health centers saved Medicare and Medicaid $25 billion alone in 2021, according to Kaiser Permanente experts.
"In my view, healthcare is a human right," Mr. Sanders said. "The legislation that I am proposing would go a long way towards accomplishing that goal."