On the recordMarch 17, 2010
We must pass health care reform now. A step-by-step approach is not the answer. If we do nothing, Americans will continue to pay higher premiums and higher out-of-pocket costs now and in the future. There are too many Americans that are without health coverage. In my district in San Bernardino County, California, there are over 220,000 without coverage. We also face a 15 percent unemployment rate and the fourth highest foreclosure rate in the Nation. Health care reform will lower the costs and hold health insurance companies accountable; end discrimination based on preexisting conditions; cut and eventually close the doughnut hole for thousands of seniors, including 5,200 seniors in my district; cut the national deficit by $100 billion over 10 years; and produce over 4 million new jobs in the coming decade. Families, not insurance companies, deserve the right to make their own health care decisions. Congress must not kick the can down the road. We need health care reform now. I state, we need health care reform now. This is a historic moment. I ask us to support health care reform now--not tomorrow, not in the future, but now.
