Bernie Sanders visits Morehouse to talk about health care workforce crisis

ATLANTA - Sen. Bernie Sanders was Atlanta on Friday to attend a roundtable at Morehouse School of Medicine.

He was joined by leaders from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) medical schools and other health care experts to discuss how to address the crisis in our nation's health care workforce, raise the number of Black Americans in the medical field, increase access to primary care, and improve health outcomes for Black Americans.

This is the first event that Sanders is holding as HELP (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions) Committee Chairman. President and CEO of Morehouse School of Medicine Dr. Valerie delivered remarks. Other attendees included Dr. Jeannette South-Paul, Executive Vice President and Provost at Meharry Medical College; Dr. Hugh E. Mighty, Senior Vice President for Health Affairs at Howard University; Dr. David Carlisle, President and CEO at Charles R. Drew University; and Dr. David J. Skorton, President and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Despite making up 13 percent of the U.S. population, Black Americans account for only 5 percent of the country’s doctors, according to Sanders' office.