WASHINGTON, March 27 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released the following statement after Elon Musk and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced they would gut the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) by recklessly firing 10,000 employees who work to improve the health of American families:

Let’s be clear: Arbitrarily firing over 10,000 workers at the Department of Health and Human Services will not make Americans healthier. It will make Americans sicker and less secure.

At a time when the cost of health insurance and prescription drugs is soaring, these outrageous cuts will make it more difficult for seniors to receive the health care they desperately need. At a time when over 60,000 Americans die because they can’t afford to go to a doctor, these cuts will make it more difficult for 32 million Americans to get the primary care they need at community health centers all over our country. At a time when the cost of child care is out of reach for millions of American families, these cuts will make a bad situation even worse. All of us want to make the government more efficient. But you don’t do that by slashing the agency in charge of the health and well-being of tens of millions of seniors, children, working families, and the most vulnerable people in America down to less than half the size of Tesla.

As the Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, I will do everything I can to reverse these disastrous cuts and finally make health care in America a human right for all, not a privilege.