Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I come to the floor with a lot of other folks to talk about the health care in this country. I think one of the goals we all share--and maybe we are not sure how to get there--is how to make sure that everybody who needs access to health care has it, that it is affordable, and that they get reasonably good quality, whoever they are and wherever they come from. When I was a naval flight officer, we used to fly a lot of missions out of Japan during the Cold War. I have a special interest in Japan, and I like the folks there. They are pretty remarkable in what they have achieved over the years. One of the things they have achieved over the years is providing pretty good health care for a fairly modest amount of money. We started working on the Affordable Care Act 7 or 8 years ago. One of the things I learned about Japan was that they were spending 8 percent of their gross domestic product for health care in their country. We were spending 18 percent. As it turns out, they were getting better results. They had lower rates of infant mortality and higher rates of longevity. People lived longer. Newborns died less frequently than we did. On top of all that, in Japan they covered everybody. Everybody was covered for health care. We had about 40 million people--over 40 million people at the time--whose health care coverage was to get into an emergency room of a hospital, try to get in line, and get someone's attention.…”