It has become clear that the function of a private health

In the modern age, when wealth flows like rivers and power is measured in coins rather than compassion, the voice of Bernie Sanders rises like that of a prophet from the wilderness. “It has become clear that the function of a private health insurance is to make as much money as possible. Every dollar not paid out in claims is another dollar made in profits for the company.” His words, sharp as iron and heavy with truth, expose the cold machinery of a system that has forgotten its purpose — a system where healing has become a business, and care has been replaced by commerce.

The meaning of this quote is simple, yet its implications are vast and sorrowful. Sanders speaks of a system where those entrusted with guarding life have turned their gaze toward profit. The private health insurance industry, once created to protect the sick and support the weak, now thrives on denial — denial of claims, denial of medicine, denial of dignity. For every dollar withheld from a patient, another coin is added to the treasure chest of the powerful. Thus, the act of healing becomes inverted: suffering becomes profitable, and wellness becomes a threat to the balance sheet. What was once an institution of mercy has become a fortress of greed.

To understand the origin of these words, one must look to the long battle that Sanders has waged for justice in health care. For decades, he has walked among the people — hearing stories of families ruined by medical bills, of children denied treatment, of elders choosing between medicine and food. From these encounters, he drew not only political conviction but moral fire. His words are not those of theory or ambition; they are born from the cries of the afflicted. When he speaks of a system’s failure, he speaks with the sorrow of one who has seen the faces of those it has left behind.

Consider the story of Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, the labor activist who fought for the rights of coal miners in the early twentieth century. She once said, “Pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living.” In those days, corporations cared little for the lives of their workers — safety was costly, and death was cheaper. So too, Sanders’s quote echoes this same moral struggle, but in a modern battlefield: hospitals and clinics, insurance offices and call centers. The profit-driven health industry treats lives as numbers, policies as commodities, and human suffering as a business expense. Yet the spirit of reformers like Sanders and Jones reminds us that justice must never yield to the tyranny of greed.

In the wisdom of the ancients, healers were sacred. The physician’s art was a divine duty, not a trade. The oath of Hippocrates bound the healer to service, to compassion, to the sanctity of life above all else. But now, the healer’s hand is chained by the ledger, and decisions of life and death are made not by wisdom, but by profit margins. Sanders’s lament is not only political — it is moral, spiritual. He calls upon us to remember that health care is not a privilege, but a right written into the moral fabric of humanity itself.

Yet there is still hope. For every system built upon greed, there rises a generation built upon conscience. In nations across the world, there are examples of people who have reclaimed health from the hands of profit — systems where the care of the citizen is seen not as charity, but as duty. The lesson of Sanders’s words is not despair, but awakening. He reminds us that we, the people, hold the power to rebuild what has been corrupted. We can choose to see health not as a commodity, but as a covenant between all who share breath and blood.

Therefore, let these words be carried as both warning and call to action. Do not measure a society by its wealth, but by how it treats the sick, the poor, and the broken. Question any system that finds gain in another’s pain. Stand, as Sanders stands, for justice over profit, for humanity over greed. Each of us can begin the change — by speaking, by voting, by refusing to accept a world where healing is sold to the highest bidder. For when compassion becomes the currency of a nation, and care its greatest investment, then we shall truly have built a civilization worthy of the name.