In America today, concerns about health care are rightly at the forefront of the national consciousness. Everyone agrees that when it comes to health care, we have a crisis in the United States. The number of uninsured Americans has ballooned to nearly 47 million, including 400,000 in Nevada. Over 100,000 uninsured Nevadans are children. Unfortunately, we are all struggling with the burden of increasing health care costs. These costs make it harder for families to afford necessary care and seniors to afford their prescriptions. They also weaken our economy and undermine America's competitiveness in the world.

Amid this health care crisis, I believe that there is a great opportunity for Congress, the Obama Administration, the private sector, and other stakeholders, to work together to come up with a solution. We should protect what works, and improve what doesn’t. If you like what you have, you should be able to keep it. The solution we develop should ensure quality, affordable health care coverage for all Americans, regardless of their age, income, employment, or health status. I want to increase choices for consumers and make sure that no one comes between patients and their doctors.

I am pleased that we have already made significant improvements to our healthcare system. For example, in February we passed an expansion and extension of the vital Children’s Health Insurance Program (P.L. 111-3). This legislation will expand coverage to an additional 4.1 million low-income children across our country. I am also pleased that as a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (P.L. 111-5), billions of dollars have been allocated for health information technology, research and development, and prevention and wellness programs. In addition, the federal matching payments for state Medicaid programs have been increased, and a temporary subsidy for COBRA premiums has been implemented to help ease the burden for hard working families affected by the economic crisis.