Enacting elements of the Affordable Care Act isn't backtracking on core principles, but rather understanding that new ways to help make health care affordable builds stronger businesses and saves struggling hospitals. And that is a very attractive offer.
Successful health reform must not just make health insurance affordable, affordable health insurance has to make health care affordable.
President Obama famously promised that the Affordable Care Act would not only slow the growth in health care costs, but would also reverse these trends, making the average health insurance plan cheaper. That isn't happening.
Since the Affordable Care Act allows individuals to buy affordable health care coverage on their own, women no longer have to remain in a job just for the health insurance - they can feel free to start their own business or care for a child or elderly parent.
Looking at affordable health care, I think it is important that we look not only at prescription drugs, but also make sure that there is a major focus on health care.
I have worked very, very hard over the course of my time in Congress to make sure that everybody does get access to quality, affordable, accessible health care.
As Congress debates overhauling the nation's health care system, it should not authorize a reform plan that would further our financial woes. We must avoid creating an unsustainable government program. There is no question that reform is needed, but health care can be made more affordable without massive and expensive new bureaucracies.
I hope the new health care exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act will provide some help.
Republicans in Congress have already taken the initial steps to start repealing the Affordable Care Act. Democrats are hoping to at the very least slow that process down by rallying public support for the health care law.
When I first ran for Congress in 1992, I campaigned on a pledge to make affordable, quality healthcare a right, not a privilege, for all Americans.
It is important to remember the purpose of health care reform: to make sure Americans have access to quality, affordable health care - especially those individuals who were being denied by their insurance companies because they weren't profitable customers.
We're underscoring to everybody the promise at the heart of the Affordable Care Act, which is quality, affordable health care coverage available in a transparent marketplace for the first time ever.
Right at the heart of the Affordable Care Act is the ban on insurance companies discriminating against people with a pre-existing condition. And this part of the Affordable Care Act makes sure that health care is not just for the healthy and wealthy.
Health care is a human right, and single-payer health care will deliver quality, affordable care to every Illinoisan.
I ran for Congress in 1996 to help Ted Kennedy pass a comprehensive health insurance reform bill.
Over and over again, I hear from Oregonians that we need real health care reform that provides every American with access to quality, affordable care.