WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today Congressman David Wu released the following statement immediately after voting to pass comprehensive health care reform in the Committee on Education and Labor, the first House committee to take up this legislation:
                        
“Americans deserve better than the health care status quo.  They deserve quality health care that they can afford, that doesn’t deny them for preexisting conditions.  They deserve to keep their coverage if they lose their job.  

After an all-night work session, the House took one of the first steps toward comprehensive health care reform this morning when the Education and Labor Committee, which I am a member of, passed the America’s Affordable Health Choices Act.  President Obama keeps saying, ‘We are going to get this done.’  Passing the health care reform bill out of the Education and Labor Committee is a major step in that direction.  We are trying to build on what works in our health care system and fix the parts that are broken.  

In Oregon, 270 people are losing their health care every day.  We must do our best for them and for all of the other hard-working families that deserve access to quality, affordable health care.  Comprehensive reform is our best shot at controlling health care costs, which we all know are currently spiraling out of control.  Under this proposal, if you like your health care coverage, you get to keep it.  If you’re one of the millions of Americans who are uninsured or underinsured, you will have new access to quality, affordable health care.  

During last night’s work session, I amended the health care bill to encourage adoption of electronic health records by remedying the current financial inequity between the payors—or insurers—who will benefit from health information technology and the providers, who must pay to install the new record systems.
                                                                                                                              
I also amended the bill to provide training opportunities for our current health care workforce.  My amendment promotes training for low-income, entry-level employees, such as lab assistants, nurse assistants, floor or ward secretaries, or health education aides, so that they can fill higher-skilled gaps in our health care workforce.  
 
While I am committed to reforming our health care system to better serve Oregonians, I remain concerned that the bill we passed in committee today doesn't do enough to fairly reimburse Oregon doctors who care for Medicare patients.  I will continue to work with congressional leaders to address this issue and hope to see changes before the health care reform bill is voted on by the full House of Representatives."

The Committee on Education and Labor passed the health care reform legislation by a vote of 26 to 22.