TITLE
Recommendation to refer the support of H.R. 1384 to the Federal Legislation Committee for review and consideration.
DISCUSSION
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...
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