Maria Cantwell: “I rise today with Senator Craig Thomas to introduce legislation that would exclude loan repayments made through the…”

“I rise today with Senator Craig Thomas to introduce legislation that would exclude loan repayments made through the National Health Service Corps from taxable income. I am pleased that Senators Cleland, Snowe, Johnson, Gordon Smith, Landrieu, Hagel, Conrad, Roberts, Durbin, Torricelli, Rockefeller, and Wyden are also cosponsoring this important legislation. There have been many developments in the area of health care in the last few years from managed care reform, to increases in biomedical research, the mapping of the human genome, and the use of exciting new technologies in both rural and urban areas such as telemedicine. In fact, it seems that almost every day we hear of astounding new scientific breakthroughs. But unfortunately, while we are making great strides in the quality of health care, we are losing ground on the access to health care for so many. The sad truth is that there are currently 38.7 million Americans without health insurance coverage, 9.2 million of whom are children.”