File #: 19-3838    Version: 1 Name: IN SUPPORT OF H.R. 1384 - THE MEDICARE FOR ALL ACT
Type: Resolution Status: Approved
File created: 5/30/2019 In control: Legislation and Intergovernmental Relations Committee
On agenda: 6/6/2019 Final action: 6/27/2019
Title: PROPOSED RESOLUTION RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF H.R. 1384 - THE MEDICARE FOR ALL ACT WHEREAS, the United States spends nearly twice as much per capita on health care as all other comparable countries and yet ranks only 35th in the world by global health standards, including on such critical barometers as average life expectancy, infant mortality, maternal mortality, and death from preventable diseases; and WHEREAS, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enacted important improvements, primarily through the expansion of Medicaid in states that have agreed to do so, and limits on some insurance industry abuses, that reform left tens of millions with a continuing crisis in access, cost, and quality of care; and WHEREAS, the uninsured rate for U.S. adults has risen for four straight years up to nearly 30 million, even after implementation of the ACA, with the greatest increase among women, young adults, and lower-income people; and WHEREAS, tens of millions more who pay for insurance remain under...
Sponsors: BRANDON JOHNSON, ALMA E. ANAYA, LUIS ARROYO JR, SCOTT R. BRITTON, DENNIS DEER, BILL LOWRY, DONNA MILLER, DEBORAH SIMS, LARRY SUFFREDIN, JEFFREY R. TOBOLSKI, JOHN P. DALEY, PETER N. SILVESTRI, KEVIN B. MORRISON, BRIDGET DEGNEN, BRIDGET GAINER
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PROPOSED RESOLUTION

RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF H.R. 1384 - THE MEDICARE FOR ALL ACT

WHEREAS, the United States spends nearly twice as much per capita on health care as all other comparable countries and yet ranks only 35th in the world by global health standards, including on such critical barometers as average life expectancy, infant mortality, maternal mortality, and death from preventable diseases; and

WHEREAS, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enacted important improvements, primarily through the expansion of Medicaid in states that have agreed to do so, and limits on some insurance industry abuses, that reform left tens of millions with a continuing crisis in access, cost, and quality of care; and

WHEREAS, the uninsured rate for U.S. adults has risen for four straight years up to nearly 30 million, even after implementation of the ACA, with the greatest increase among women, young adults, and lower-income people; and

WHEREAS, tens of millions more who pay for insurance remain underinsured due to the still largely unregulated high cost of medical care that has led to one-third of all GoFundMe accounts being established to pay for exorbitant medical bills; and

WHEREAS, more than 40 percent of all U.S. adults under the age of 65 forego needed medical care, 30 percent fail to fill a prescription or take less than the recommended dose, and a third said they had to choose in the past year between paying for food, heating, housing, or health care, according to a 2018 survey by the West Health Institute and NORC at the University of Chicago; and

WHEREAS, the inability to pay medical bills continues to be a leading cause of personal bankruptcy, and people who need medical care should never face bankruptcy as a result of needing care; and

WHEREAS, the ever-rising cost of health care and its discriminatory characteristics contribute to the growing national chasm in wealth inequality; and

WHEREAS, discrimination, based on race, ethnicity, national origin, gend...

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