Section 1 Findings
Congress finds the following:
Congress must ensure that healthcare is affordable and accessible.
Political disagreements must be set aside so that Congress and the President can work together to improve healthcare quality, access, and affordability.
Affordable access to preventative care can provide enormous benefits and reduce overall costs to all Americans, young and old.
Individuals and families are ultimately responsible and accountable for their own well-being and long-term health, and our laws should reflect this reality.
Subscribing to a healthy lifestyle should be a goal for all Americans, and Congress should act in an appropriate and responsible manner to make this goal achievable.
There are many positive reforms included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that are improving coverage, ending discrimination, and reducing costs. Requiring insurers to cover pre-existing conditions, maternity care, and emergency services and allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ plans until age 26 are examples of positive reforms in the Act that must continue to be implemented.
Nevertheless, it is important to recognize when a new program is not meeting the high standards that the American people expect. So far, the Federal healthcare exchanges have failed, and we must deliver a better product.
While every program must go through a transition period, no individual or family should be penalized while the problems in new healthcare exchanges are being addressed.
Congress should work toward fixing these flaws and ensuring the new programs are strong, while giving the American people a transition period.
Delaying the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is not an appropriate or responsible action, but Congress should not hesitate to enact commonsense reforms, such as an individual mandate transition year, to improve this important legislation.