Health Care - It's Time for a Change

Floor Speech

HEALTH CARE--IT'S TIME FOR A CHANGE -- (House of Representatives - March 04, 2009)

(Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Ladies and gentlemen of America, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provides $20 billion to accelerate the adoption of health information systems by doctors and hospitals; these are electronic medical records. This will modernize health care in this country, it will save billions of dollars by reducing the need for duplicate diagnostic procedures, it will reduce medical errors and improve the quality of services. This will create or save hundreds of thousands of jobs, many in the high-tech sectors, tens of billions of dollars in system-wide savings, including a net reduction in private health insurance premiums for families.

I want the public to know that it's time for change. Our health care system should have been addressed many, many years ago, but under this new administration and under this Democratic leadership of this fine body, we are doing what needs to be done in order to put this country in a posture it needs to be in for the new millennium.

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