On the recordMarch 16, 2010
This week this House has a historic opportunity. For far too long, millions of Americans have not been able to afford basic health care coverage. For far too long, families with insurance are told when they finally need to use that insurance, that they are not covered. For too long, insurance company executives and bureaucrats have dictated what is covered to the doctors. For far too long, those who are insured have been paying a hidden tax to cover the millions of uninsured. This week the figure is $51 million. For far too long, the United States has spent double the amount of any other industrialized nation, and we are no healthier for it. And for far too long, there have been those who have said we can wait a little longer; we will put health care off and do it at another time. This button was given to me last weekend by a woman in Fountain, Minnesota. It reads, ``Healthcare for All--the time is now.'' She's been carrying it for 25 years. Last week, the Mayo Clinic--which is in my district in southern Minnesota--along with the Cleveland Clinic and other leading institutions, put out a statement urging reform in this House. The statement read, ``Reforming health care in America will not become easier with the passage of time,'' and we urge you to move forward. The time is right for America to fix this inequity. The time is right to move America forward, and as the button says, health care for all, the time is now. That is this week.
