Quotes About Healthcare

Do we need Medicare reform? Yes we do.

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.

It's not health care reform to dump more money into Medicaid.

That's what healthcare reform is about: the middle class's economic security.

The federal government should encourage rather than micromanage market reform in all 50 states. Since health care is local, private-sector innovation in conjunction with state-level reform of the individual and small-group markets is a better approach.

Democrats believe we must have comprehensive health care reform that includes giving the federal government authority to negotiate lower prices with drug companies.

I'm not saying we don't need health care reform. We do need health care reform.

I came to the conclusion months ago, and I said it to members of Congress, that the only way people are going to fully appreciate what this reform is if we pass it and implement it and it becomes not a caricature but a reality, and I still believe that. So I think it will be easier to sell it moving forward than it was to this point.

We're saying no changes for Medicare for people above the age of 55. And in order to keep the promise to current seniors who've already retired and organized their lives around this program, you have to reform it for the next generation.

I'm one of those that have said, one of my key principles is I will not support a health care reform bill that is not deficit-neutral, period.

A lot of people say, 'Why do health-care reform when the deficits are so big?' But that is when we've got to do it.

The whole issue of healthcare is very complicated. There have been seven Presidents who've tried to get healthcare reform passed.

Liberal that I am, I support health-care reform on its merits alone. My liberal blood boils, for example, when I read that half of the personal bankruptcies in this country are brought on, in part, by medical expenses.

Well, first let me say that I think health care reform is important. It has to be a priority. And our system is broken. The Finance Committee bill is the best effort yet, due in large measure to the efforts of my colleague, Olympia Snowe, but it's not there yet. It falls short.

I have been absolutely clear where I'm coming from about health care reform. This is something this nation has to do and a robust public option has been the mantra of my campaign from the very outset.

Costs for liability insurance are higher than costs for many procedures. There is a need to reform liability laws to stop out-of-control health care costs.

Opponents of health care reform would take away consumer protections - siding with the insurance industry instead of the middle class. We can't afford that.

Reversing the escalation of health care costs is going to need more than legislation, yet it can be done without imposing rationing, as critics of reform fear.

Nurses are on the front lines of our care. And they need to be at the foundation of health care reform. Let's get health care done - and done right - by ensuring the amount of nurses we need to provide quality care for all.

As a practicing physician for over 30 years, I can assure the president that the majority of physicians in this country are for health-care reform - just not the government-run reform he prefers.

If someone really wanted to end Medicare, they wouldn't propose a reform: they would do nothing.

If we did not have Obamacare, we could've addressed the healthcare crisis in a comprehensive but segmented fashion - meaning that we could have promoted a health savings plan. We could've pushed for tort reform, which added so much more cost to healthcare.

I don't believe we have defined health care reform very well in this country.

In my opinion, real reform, which lowers costs and ensures all Americans get the quality, affordable health care that they deserve, cannot be accomplished without a robust public option.