Floor Speech
Last year, 2.5 million jobs were lost and on Monday alone, companies announced they were laying off 37,000 employees. When workers lose their jobs, many also lose their health insurance. Many delay medical care because they choose to use their limited resources on groceries and other basic necessities. These families need help and they will get it from this package. It makes changes to cobra so it will be more affordable for those laid off and in addition, those who lost their job and aren't eligible for cobra, it creates a new option paid for by the federal government. It will help provide medical insurance to eight million Americans over the next year. Right now, most states are experiencing a budget crisis. Many governors are starting to look at scaling back on their Medicaid programs just as more and more people are in need of Medicaid services. This bill provides critical financial assistance so states are not forced to scale back their Medicaid programs and can continue to serve those in need. And we continue to invest $20 million to help doctors and hospitals acquire and help use information technology. For years, we've all been talking about the need to modernize our health care system and this bill finally provides the means to do so. Not only does this legislation invests in our economy today but makes our system safer and more efficient for years to come. The recovery package answers the pleas from economists who said we must act quickly and boldly and it certainly deserves bipartisan support and I would yield back, well I think my time is pretty much ended.
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