Words of Noah Wyle, star of “The Pitt”

"The Pitt is what happened when a group of us got obsessed with one question. What does the job actually look like right now?

And to answer that question honestly, we listened. We listened to emergency physicians. We listened to charge nurses. We listened to residents being asked to function on three hours sleep after working 18-hour shifts and then being asked to head right back in.

We listened to social workers, to techs, to attendings, to chaplains.

And we did not have to go very far. The reality was right there. You were all living it every day. And what I learned from this show and what is now in my bones is that medicine is hard enough but so much of the damage is coming from everything around medicine.

It is the prior auth that takes the surgery off the schedule.

It is the staffing ratio that turns a manageable shift into a moral injury.

It is the tuition bill from a decade ago that still dictates where you can live and what you can afford.

It is the fear of telling the truth that could cost you your job. And I'm not telling you anything that you don't already know.

You came to the Capitol today because you are tired of the gap between how this country talks about health care professionals and what the reality is.

Let me say plainly what we're asking Congress to do. one, pass the Healthcare Human Act, a federal tax credit of up to $6,000 a year for health care professionals serving the communities that need them the most.

This is not a luxury. If health care professionals aren't paid fairly, they leave the profession and patients get sick and die. Full stop.

Two, fully fund the programs of the Dr. Laura Breen Act.

Before I say another word about funding, I just want to say her name one more time. Dr. Lauren Breen.

Dr. Lauren Breen was an emergency physician. She spent her life taking care of people on some of the worst days of their lives. And during the early days of Covid, she did what health care professionals do.

She went toward the crisis. And then she needed support in a system that still makes too many people afraid of what asking for help could cost them.

I never met Dr. Breen, but I know her story because her family refused to let her death be defined by suicide.

They turned her grief into action. They helped change a federal law. And because of them, more health care professionals are able to get the support before they reach a breaking point. That is legacy.

And the way we honor it now is not with applause alone. It is with action, resources, and resolve.

However, without funding it, it's a promise without action. Congress needs to finish the job.

Three, pass the health care professional speak free act."

Watch the full video here.