Michael Bennet, U.S. Senator for Colorado, continued his ongoing conversation with Coloradans on the need for health care reform at events today in Grand Junction and Breckenridge. In Grand Junction, Bennet spoke at a Club 20 event, while in Breckenridge he discussed health care reform with physicians at the Colorado Medical Society Annual Meeting.
In his remarks, Bennet tied the urgent need for health care reform to the long-term imperative of restoring the country’s fiscal health. In an effort to help Colorado’s small businesses and families, Bennet said that we must do right by future generations and begin the difficult work of putting the nation’s fiscal house back in order:
“We need to get health care reform done and, just as important, done right.
“We need to stop the rising costs that are bankrupting working families, small businesses, and our economy. We must hold insurance companies more accountable by ending denials of coverage based on pre-existing conditions, and make exorbitant out-of-pocket costs and arbitrary caps on coverage a thing of the past. And these reforms must be fiscally responsible and not add to the deficit.
“I also support a public option as a means to promote choice and competition. In town halls and conversations I’ve had with Coloradans across the state, I have heard from numerous people who year after year have paid for private insurance only to discover that when they needed coverage, it wasn’t there. Many Coloradans who have had such experiences are understandably unhappy that somebody profited from that commercial transaction.
“There is no reason why people shouldn’t have as many options as possible to choose from, including a public option. A public option should be just that, an option, one of a number of choices – public, private and non profit – that families and small business can choose from.
“The American people are counting on us to make the hard choices, and enact reform that makes a positive, material difference in their lives – it’s time we show them that we are equal to the task.” – Michael Bennet, U.S. Senator for Colorado