WASHINGTON, March 11 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today asked for unanimous consent on the Senate floor to pass his Medicare Dental, Hearing, and Vision Expansion Act. The bicameral legislation introduced earlier today would expand access to dental, hearing and vision care for the 68 million American seniors on Medicare.  

Sanders’ remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below and can be watched HERE: 

M. President: My office, and I suspect all Senate offices, are getting a whole lot of calls from senior citizens who are experiencing a great deal of fear and anxiety as to all the confusion and chaos that’s going on in Washington.  

When we have the President and my Republican colleagues talking about cutting Medicaid by $880 billion, they are not just talking about throwing millions of children and others off the health care they have, they are also talking about cuts to community health centers, which receive 43% of their funding from Medicaid and where millions of seniors go to get their primary care. Cutting Medicaid affects primary care.

At a time when we have a major crisis in nursing home availability, let us understand that Medicaid provides approximately 2 out of 3 seniors with the funding they need to live in nursing homes. Make drastic cuts in Medicaid, it’s going to be harder for your mom, your dad to get into a nursing home or to stay in a nursing home. Cuts to Medicaid would be a disaster for seniors in nursing homes. 

But it’s not just Medicaid cuts that worry seniors. 

At a time when the Social Security Administration is already understaffed – and, again, for years I have been hearing from seniors who tell us they’re calling up Social Security, they’ve got a problem, they are not getting a response. And the result of that is that some 30,000 people a year die waiting for their Social Security Disability benefits.  

And in the midst of all that – in the midst of a crisis where Social Security is understaffed, where our response should be to significantly increase staffing so that Social Security can better respond to the needs of our constituents – we have Elon Musk and his minions at DOGE cutting some 7,000 of Social Security’s staff and, incredibly, they are now threatening to cut up to half of Social Security Administration staffing.

And then, on top of all that, you have Mr. Musk claiming that Social Security, which has paid out every benefit owed to every eligible American for 86 years, is a “Ponzi scheme.” 

Social Security is not a Ponzi scheme.  

And then you have the President of the United States lying about millions of people who are 200 or 300 years of age getting Social Security benefits. Seniors understand what all of that is about. They know that Musk and Trump want us to lose faith in Social Security, and that over a period of time, they want to give that indispensable program over to Wall Street. 

M. President, let us be clear: In America today 22% of Americans who are over 65 years of age are trying to survive on an income of less than $15,000 a year. Think about that. Half of seniors are trying to get by on $30,000 a year or less. 

I don’t know how any senior living on $15,000, $20,000 survives. High cost of prescription drugs, food, housing, keeping warm in the winter. I don’t know how they can do that.  

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), we now have the dubious distinction of having one of the highest rates of senior poverty compared to other wealthy nations. 

In America today, according to the latest OECD estimates, 23% of seniors are living in poverty compared to just 4% of seniors in Norway, 6% in France, and 11.5% in Canada. 

Yeah, we have more nuclear weapons than any other country, we have more billionaires than any other country, but we also have one of the highest rates of senior poverty of any country on Earth. We might want to get our priorities right. 

M. President: While my Republican colleagues would like to make massive cuts to Medicaid in order to provide even more tax breaks to billionaires, some of us have a better idea. 

We think that it makes more sense to substantially improve the lives of our nation’s seniors by expanding Medicare to cover dental, vision and hearing benefits. 

In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare – one of the most popular and successful government programs in our nation’s history – into law. 

Before the enactment of Medicare, about half of our seniors were uninsured. Today, everyone in America aged 65 or older is guaranteed health care benefits through Medicare regardless of their income or medical condition. 

That is the good news. The bad news is that, since its inception 60 years ago, Medicare has failed to cover such basic health care needs as hearing, dental care and vision. 

The result: millions of senior citizens have teeth that are rotting in their mouths, they are unable to hear what their children say or unable to read a newspaper because of failing eyesight. 

M. President: This is the United States of America. We are the wealthiest country in the history of the world.  

Senior citizens should not be walking around with no teeth in their mouth. They should not be unable to hear conversations. They should not be unable to afford glasses so they can read a newspaper. 

The need to expand Medicare to cover dental care, hearing aids and eyeglasses is absolutely critical. Nobody denies that oral health, hearing and vision are essential parts of health care. We cannot continue to deny seniors these basic health care benefits. 

M. President: We can no longer tolerate the fact that 26 million seniors and people with disabilities in America have no dental insurance and no idea how they will be able to pay for the very expensive dental procedures that they need. 

The results have been tragic. Nearly one out of five seniors in America have lost all of their natural teeth. 20% of seniors in America have no natural teeth in their mouths. Disgracefully, 60 percent of our nation’s seniors have untreated gum disease, which can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. 

Further, it is not acceptable that while nearly two-thirds of seniors over the age of 70 experience hearing loss, less than 30% of seniors above this age have ever used a hearing aid – primarily because hearing aids are too expensive. In my view, no senior in America should face isolation from their families and friends simply because they cannot afford the extremely high price of a hearing aid. 

In addition, we cannot continue to allow seniors with poor vision to go without routine eye exams or properly prescribed eyeglasses. Poor vision can lead to injury, cognitive impairment and depression. 

M. President: Adding dental, vision and hearing benefits to Medicare is not just good public policy. It will not only ease human suffering and improve the health of our nation’s senior citizens. It is precisely what the overwhelming majority of the American people want. 

Poll after poll tells us exactly that. According to a poll conducted by Data for Progress last year, 92 percent of the American people support expanding Medicare to provide dental, vision and hearing benefits. 

And that is why, M. President, I have introduced legislation today with Senators Warren, Booker, Welch, Markey, Duckworth, Merkley and Blumenthal to do just that. 

Congressman Lloyd Doggett has introduced similar legislation in the House which has more than 110 cosponsors. 

Now, I am sure some of my Republican colleagues may say, well that’s an interesting idea, but how are you going to pay for it? 

So let me tell you how we’re going to pay for it. We are going to pay for it by requiring Medicare to pay no more for prescription drugs than the VA.

Right now, we pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, and that means significantly increased expenses for Medicare.  

By making sure that Medicare pays no more than the VA – which has for decades negotiated prices with the pharmaceutical industry – we can not only cut the price of prescription drugs for our seniors in half, we will save over $800 billion over the next decade, which would more than pay for this legislation. 

Lower the cost of prescription drugs and get the revenue we need to cover dental, vision and hearing for seniors.  

Some of my other Republican friends may argue that this bill is not needed. Some Medicare Advantage plans already offer dental, vision and hearing benefits. 

Yes, but what my Republican friends won’t tell you is, one, seniors still pay thousands of dollars out-of-pocket because these private Medicare Advantage benefits are totally inadequate; further, the non-partisan Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has estimated that Medicare Advantage plans overcharge the federal government by $83 billion a year. 

In other words, M. President, if we are serious about waste, fraud and abuse, we may want to take a look at the massive waste and fraud that is taking place with private Medicare Advantage plans. 

Those savings would also more than fully pay for this legislation. 

Therefore, M. President, as if in Legislative Session, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S.939 which was introduced earlier today; that the bill be considered read three times and passed, and that the motion to reconsider be considered, made and laid upon the table.