KENNEDY PRAISES CEA HEALTH REFORM REPORT, CALLS FOR ACTION

WASHINGTON, DC— Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Chairman of the Health, Education,

Labor, and Pensions Committee, issued the following statement today on the Council of

Economic Advisers report, The Economic Case for Health Care Reform, and the importance of such reform for increasing economic growth, reducing unemployment, assisting small

businesses, and easing family budgets:

“The Council’s report emphas the major economic benefit to the nation that will also be

achieved if we make health care a basic right for all. In the current economic crisis, more and

more families are being forced to leave their preferred doctors, forgo medication they need, or

are even losing their health insurance entirely because their employer can no longer afford a

health plan. We can’t afford to miss this chance to give the American people, at long last, the

health care they deserve.”

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