Ocasio-Cortez: ‘Funeral Expenses’ Will Be Reduced Under ‘Medicare for All’

RUSH EXCERPT:

OCASIO-CORTEZ: "So first of all, the thing that we need to realize is people talk about the sticker shock of Medicare for all. They done talk about the sticker shock of the cost of our existing system. You know, in a Koch brothers-funded study, if any study’s going to try to be a little bit slanted it would be one funded by the Koch brothers. It shows that Medicare for all is actually much more — is actually much cheaper than the current system that we pay right now. And let’s not forget that the reason that the Supreme Court upheld the affordable care act is because they ruled that each of these monthly payments that everyday Americans make is a tax. And so while it may not seem like we pay that tax on April 15th, we pay it every single month or we do pay it tax season if we don’t buy, you know, these plans off of the exchange. So we’re paying for this system. Americans have the sticker shock of health care as it is. And we’re also not talking about why aren’t we incorporating the cost of all the funeral expenses of those who die because they can’t afford access to health care. That is part of the cost of our system. Why don’t we talk about the cost of reduced productivity because of people who need to go on disability, because of people who are not able to participate in our economy, because they have — because they’re having issues like diabetes or they don’t have access to the health care that they need. I think at the end of the day we see that this is not a pipe dream. Every other developed nation in the world does this. Why can’t America? And that is the question that we need to ask. We have done these things before. We write unlimited blank checks for war. We just wrote a $2 trillion check for that tax cut, the GOP tax cut. And nobody asked those folks how are they going to pay for it. So my question is why is it that our pockets are only empty when it comes to education and health care for our kids. Why are our pockets only empty when we talk about 100% renewable energy that’s going to save this planet and allow our children to thrive? We only have empty pockets when it comes to the morally right things to do. But when it comes to tax cuts for billionaires and when it comes to unlimited war we seem to be able to be — into vent that money very easily. And to me it belies a lack of moral priorities that people have right now, especially Republican Party."