Winning the Health Care Debate

Statement

Winning the Health Care Debate

Health care reform is the single most important step we can take to help families and rebuild our economy. With Americans losing jobs and struggling to care for their families, now more than ever, I am committed to passing legislation that will reform our system to provide health care for all.

From the college grad no longer covered by her parents' insurance, to the laid-off worker forced to stop going to the doctor to afford groceries for his family, to the cancer patient fighting not just cancer, but also his insurance company to cover costly drugs and treatments—our health care system is broken and a comprehensive fix will end the suffering of so many from sickness and financial insecurity.

In Congress, we are debating legislation that would implement President Obama's health care plan to directly address the staggering 47 million Americans without health insurance. I strongly support the principles of President Obama's plan, which will help families by reducing individual health care costs and encouraging preventative care programs to keep kids healthy before sickness starts. By allowing individuals to keep what they like or to shop around for new coverage, the public option in the plan gives Americans increased choice and the much-needed stability and peace of mind that is currently lacking in our health care system.

In addition to bringing coverage to millions of Americans, preventing discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, and encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation by increasing the transportability of health care, we must ensure that this bill begins to attack the critical issue of reducing health care costs in our bloated system. The United States spends 16.5 percent of our GDP on health care costs, while the average among European nations is only 8.6 percent. We pay more, receive less, and we don't even cover every American. We simply must reduce costs in addition to expanding coverage.

The original House bill fell short of the vision articulated by President Obama in that it lacked some of the cost-saving policies he has called for. Accordingly, it required more revenue generating measures to pay for providing coverage including a new surcharge on many small businesses.

I recently sent a letter, along with 20 of my fellow freshmen Democrats, to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi urging her to reduce costs and seek out additional means of funding. I also made the difficult decision to vote against the bill in its earliest stages to draw attention to this surcharge provision and lack of cost controls, as a way to strengthen the bill and its revenue sources before it reaches the House floor.

I made my decision knowing that the bill still had the votes to make it out of my committee. It passed by a vote of 26 to 22. My actions were to modify the House bill to better reflect the President's plan to contain costs so that we have exhausted every possible alternative before resorting to tax increases. And I am happy to say that significant progress has been made on making sure that health care reform is good for small business and good for the economy. Since I recently raised the issue of the impact of the reforms on small business, I have met with President Obama, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Speaker Pelosi and House Leadership several times. They were very responsive to my concerns and assured me that every step is and will be taken to equitably pay for health care reform. In fact, during a press conference last Thursday, Speaker Pelosi publically acknowledged that "in the course of the legislative process, we should be able to find more savings," and has shown a great deal of flexibility in solving this problem by looking for more savings and investigating reducing the surtax.

In addition to the millions of Americans without healthcare coverage and countless more who are underinsured or worried about losing coverage, the costs of healthcare are stifling our economy and job growth. This is the Congress of hope, change, and progress. We have a tremendous opportunity now to pass a bill for our nation's health, peace of mind, and economy.

I encourage everyone—especially my colleagues in Congress—to join me in this most important fight. I eagerly look forward to working with House leadership and the White House to pass health care reform as soon as possible. America cannot wait.

Source