WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 – Sen. Bernie Sanders issued the following statement Tuesday on a new Census Bureau report on income, poverty, pay equity and health insurance:

“When President Obama took office almost eight years ago, we were losing 800,000 jobs a month and median family income was plummeting during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Today, we are making progress but we must do much more to help the millions of Americans still working longer hours for lower wages. While the Census Bureau report shows a welcome increase last year in median family income, the fact is that household incomes still are 1.6 percent below the 2007 level, the year before the last recession began. The wealthy, meanwhile, have never had it so good.

“We also must continue to fight persistent poverty and wage discrimination.

“And while the Affordable Care Act has helped millions of people get access to health insurance, the Census Bureau still found that 29 million people remained uninsured. We must make health care a right, not a privilege. It is time for a Medicare-for-all, single payer system to provide better care at less cost to all Americans.

“As a nation, we must do more to create jobs, raise wages, reduce poverty and provide equal pay for equal work. We must end huge tax breaks for billionaires while children in this country go hungry. We must stop sending our jobs to China and allowing corporations to hide profits overseas while there are massive unmet needs in every corner of this nation.”