Representing the 13th Congressional District of Pennsylvania
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 19, 2009 |
CONTACT: Rachel Magnuson, 202-225-6111 |
| U.S. Rep. Schwartz: Healthcare Reform is an Economic and Moral Imperative | ||
U.S. Rep. Schwartz’s opening statement at the hearing follows below, as prepared for delivery. Schwartz serves as the vice chair of the House Budget Committee.
“Thank you Mr. Chairman, and I’d like to extend a warm welcome to Dr. Christina Romer, Chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors. The recent report from the President’s Council of Economic Advisors on the economic case for health care reform could not be more timely. It serves as an important statement of how we cannot separate the challenges in our economy from the challenges of our health care system. And in order to rebuild our economy, in order to enable American businesses to be more competitive, in order to set our budget and country back on the path to strong fiscal standing, we must enact a uniquely American solution to health care costs and coverage.
“We have already begun this work. In the first three months of this new Administration, we did more to strengthen health care than in the prior decade. We expanded affordable health coverage to 11 million American children of working parents, took major steps to modernize medicine through health information technology, invested significantly in life-saving medical research, and ensured that American workers and their families hurt hardest by this recession continue to have access to health coverage when they lose a job.
“And today, as it so happens, the three House Committees crafting comprehensive health care reform legislation will be releasing a draft of that proposal. My colleagues here in the Budget Committee have repeatedly heard me argue for health reform as an economic and moral imperative – our fundamental responsibility to improve health outcomes and expand access to affordable, meaningful health coverage to every American. You have also all heard this Committee discuss the grave implications for the federal budget if we do not enact health care reforms that control the rate of growth of health care spending.
“In today’s hearing we’ll be focusing on the economic imperative to achieve meaningful health care reform this year: our nation’s troubled economy and future economic growth. Health care reform that slows the growth of health costs will lower the federal deficit and promote national saving and capital formation. Expanding health insurance coverage to all Americans will improve Americans’ health status and increase workforce productivity and free up dollars now used for benefits for increased wages, additional job growth, and other needed investments. And perhaps most obviously, driving down the cost “of health insurance will relieve some of the burden of employee health benefits on our businesses that are struggling to compete.
I look forward to hearing from Dr. Romer about how our economy will benefit from health care reform."
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