Baldwin on Passing the Affordable Health Care for America Act

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November 7, 2009 -- “This is an historic moment for our nation. House passage of H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, marks the first step toward ensuring health care for all Americans. I truly believe that we’ll look back years from now and view the passage of this Act to be as significant as the passage of the Social Security Act in 1935 and the Medicare and Medicaid Act in1965.

The bill the House passed today will cover 35 million Americans who currently have no health insurance. This legislation will end the abusive practices of the insurance companies. Your coverage will no longer be denied because of a pre-existing condition. The bill will end the despicable practice of retroactively cancelling your policy at the moment you most need care. It will place caps on out-of-pocket medical expenses so that families dealing with a serious illness will no longer face the prospect of bankruptcy or financial ruin. And it will offer a multitude of other reforms to make our health care system more efficient, less costly, and more effective in preventing illness, restoring, and maintaining good health for you and you family.

Health care for all is the issue that brought me into politics and has been a driving force in my work ever since. I am proud of the role that I played in crafting this groundbreaking legislation and will continue to work on improving and strengthening this measure to send the strongest bill possible to the President’s desk.”

Source: Rep. Tammy Baldwin