Ben Cardin: “I take this time to explain a bill I am filing today that will establish universal health coverage called Universal…”

“I take this time to explain a bill I am filing today that will establish universal health coverage called Universal Health Coverage Act. Let me tell you why I am introducing this bill. Our health care system provides the highest quality health care in the world if you are fortunate to get access to it. People come from all over the world to come to our great academic centers to get their health care needs met and to train their health care professionals. In my home State of Maryland, I am very proud of the University of Maryland Medical Center and Johns Hopkins University. We have great institutions, such as the National Institutes of Health, that provide top-quality health care. The problem is too many people cannot get access to affordable quality health care in America. We have 46 million uninsured; 9 million are children. We spend more money than any other country by far on health care, and yet our health care results do not reflect that type of investment of our public funds. The No. 1 problem in health care in America today is the number of uninsured. We need to do something about it. The Universal Health Coverage Act does exactly that. It says every person in this country must have health insurance. We are paying for the people who do not have health insurance. Those of us who have health coverage are paying more for our doctors and hospitals. We pay more in taxes because people have no health insurance.”