Paul Farmer Quotes

I see the insurance issue, the coverage of people for healthcare in our country as a huge moral issue. The richest country in the world to have 47 million people without health insurance is ridiculous.

The lack of financial strength to avail healthcare is a major challenge.

America enjoys the best health care in the world, but the best is no good if folks can't afford it, access it and doctor's can't provide it.

The United States has the best health system in the world. Unfortunately this is true only for those who can afford it.

(Doctors) collectively have done more to block adequate medical care for people of this country than any other single group.

The need for this clinic is clear to me, to the veterans who are currently forced to travel hours to receive care, and even to the Veterans Administration that itself identified creation of a clinic in this part of our state as a priority to be completed by 2006.

I began to see during the civil war, in that part of the states of Missouri and Kansas where the doctors were shut out, the children did not die.

Health care is much the same - the status quo is, by all measures, failing far too many people - and we must not shrink from the challenge.

Rich men do not lack physicians, but the poor can rarely afford good ones. We must pay special attention to them.

If your baby is going to die and it doesn't have to, it shouldn't matter how much money you make.

I think Medicaid harms people.

The fact is, many poor patients visit ERs simply because they don't have a family doctor.

I know firsthand how our being such a rural state presents challenges to healthcare.

We have a failing Medicaid system, and you know who that's going to hurt in the end are the most vulnerable in people in our society.

The very rich, very poor, and the very famous get the worst medical care. The very rich can buy it, the very poor can't get any, and the very famous can dictate it.

If a novel were written about Florida's administration of its healthcare for the working poor, an appropriate title might be: 'Don't get sick, and God help you if you do.'

Too many upstate New Yorkers have to drive 30 minutes or more to see a doctor.

Whether it's a mom worrying about affording insulin for her children or a cancer patient fearing bankruptcy due the price of his life-saving medications, the number one issue Kansans talk to me about is the cost of health care and prescription drugs.

We've got nearly 50 million people in America with no health insurance. That's a weapon of mass destruction.

Obamacare is not affordable by the USA and it's not affordable by people.

The United States of America is the richest country in the world; yet we're the worst at taking care of poor people.

The medical profession [in Egypt] is also very commercial. Health is not given to the poor. You know, if you have money, you have medical care; if you do not, then you are in trouble. I was not ready at all to build my economic security on the diseases of people, on suffering, especially of women and children. So, in a way, I rebelled against it.

I think even the poorest people in the great country that is the United States should be entitled to basic health care.

While you can say that the problem of the middle class in the rich countries is too much globalization, the problem of the people who are very poor is really that they are not included in globalization. For them, the success of their own countries at becoming part of this international division of labor would be good news.

The government does not have some magic wand that can 'bring down the cost of health care.' It can buy a smaller quantity or lower quality of medical care, as other countries with government-run medical care do.