Hillary Clinton Statement on "Cover the Uninsured Week"

During this year's sixth annual Cover the Uninsured Week, we are reminded of the 47 million Americans who do not have access to quality, affordable health insurance, as well as those who are just a pink slip away from losing the coverage they have and those who are struggling to pay for their health care bills. Premiums have almost doubled since 2000, and today medical bills contribute to 50 percent of all personal bankruptcies. As President, I will make achieving universal health care my top domestic priority. Under my American Health Choices Plan, I will lower costs, improve quality, and cover every single American.

Cover the Uninsured Week, a project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and its many sponsors, encourages people to participate in events to raise awareness about the millions of people without health insurance and promote solutions for providing care for the uninsured. Improving our health care system has been a life long passion of mine, and I welcome the efforts of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and others to raise the profile of this issue. As First Lady, I helped create the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and I have worked to protect and expand the program as a U.S. Senator. It is unconscionable that in the richest country in the world, in this day and age, some people die because they do not have health insurance. As President, I will work to guarantee that every single one of us has access to quality care that is affordable.

Under my plan, all Americans will have access to health care - no one will be left out. People who are satisfied with their current health care plans can keep them unchanged. Those who do not have coverage or are unsatisfied with their current plan will be able to choose from the same options available to Members of Congress or opt into a public plan option similar to Medicare, in a new national insurance pool. People who can't afford health care will receive a generous refundable tax credit so that their premiums never exceed a small percentage of their income, and small businesses will receive a tax credit for providing insurance to their employees. I will stop insurance companies from discriminating against people based on age, race, gender, or other risk factors like pre-existing conditions. And under my plan, insurance will be portable - people will not lose their coverage if they change or lose jobs.

I have a plan to reduce costs throughout our health care system that includes making it a condition of doing business with the federal government that health plans cover high-priority preventive services. I have also proposed modernizing our health care system through the use of electronic medical records, which will make it easier for patients to access their medical information and could, according to one estimate, result in system-wide savings of tens of billions of dollars.

To improve the quality of care, I have proposed establishing an independent public-private Best Practices Institute that will finance comparative effectiveness research so that health care providers and patients can access the treatments and medicines that work best. I will also provide funding for research that will provide health care professionals with additional methods to obtain the information they need to better serve their patients.

I'm proud to be the only candidate in the presidential race to have a universal health care plan. In order to cover all of the uninsured people in our country, we must bring every stakeholder to the table. That is why my plan is based on shared responsibility. Efforts such as Cover the Uninsured Week encourage people to reach out to their neighbors and their communities to develop solutions and do what Americans do best by coming together and working toward a common goal.