Last night, Senate majority leader Harry Reid introduced his version of comprehensive health care reform, offering a wide range of major changes. The proposed reforms would make health insurance available to millions of new people while reducting individual costs, reducing the deficit and addressing the uncertainty and volatility of coverage. As Senator Boxer said last night:
This is an important moment for our country.
If you have health insurance, this bill gives you the security of knowing it will be there for you.
If you don’t have health insurance, you’ll be able to get affordable coverage through the exchange, which includes the public option.
Ultimately, we are expanding health care to cover more than 94 percent of Americans, while cutting the federal deficit by an estimated $127 billion over 10 years.
When this bill is signed into law, America’s families will see immediate improvements.
After a week and a half of hard work to stand up against the Stupak Amendment and protect long-established standards of women’s health coverage, the Senate bill maintains the traditional compromise on choice. As the Senator explained:
Senator Reid also has crafted language that will keep women from being discriminated against when it comes to their reproductive health care. The Senate bill maintains the compromise that has been in place for decades that prohibits the use of federal funds for abortion, but allows a woman to use her own private funds.
There’s still a long way to go until health care reform becomes law, but this is a key step towards comprehensive, landmark reform.
Tags: barbara boxer, choice, harry reid, health care, stupak
When will national accreditation start for health departments? Program development is currently underway at PHAB. Committees and Workgroups developed the standards and measures, the procedures to assess health departments, and a research and evaluation plan. Draft standards are publicly available.
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