MEDIA ADVISORY: HELP Committee to Hold Markup on the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Response Act

Press Release

"As every American knows, our country faces a major crisis in primary care and a massive shortage of doctors, nurses, mental health professionals, and dentists. Tens of millions of Americans live in communities where they cannot find a doctor while others have to wait months to be seen. At the end of the day, this crisis not only increases human suffering and unnecessary deaths, but wastes tens of billions a year as Americans flock to expensive ER rooms or hospitals because they could not access the primary care they need. The HELP Committee is in a unique position to address these long-standing issues, and that is precisely what we will do on July 26th.

The legislation being introduced today will invest $20 billion a year over a five-year period to expand community health centers and provide the resources necessary to recruit, train, and retain tens of thousands of primary care doctors, mental health providers, nurses, dentists, and home health care workers. It will be paid for by cutting a fraction of the enormous waste and abuse in our health care system and reduce what Americans pay for some of the most expensive prescription drugs on the market.

Every major medical organization agrees that our investment in primary health care is woefully inadequate as we invest less than half of what other major countries spend on primary health care. They understand that investing in disease prevention and providing Americans with a medical home will not only save lives, it will save money.

I look forward to working with all of my colleagues on the HELP Committee to pass a bipartisan primary care bill on July 26th."

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