Senator Rodney Ellis Lauds Passage of Federal Health Care Reform Bill

 “Since the time of Theodore Roosevelt almost every American president has considered significant health reform. Early in his term, President Obama took on that formidable task. The road to reform has  been long and arduous, but today Congress passed monumental  initiatives for health care coverage that will positively affect the  lives of all Americans. 

This historic event provides meaningful  legislation that improves the quality of life for 4.4 million uninsured Texans, slows out of control health care spending, and puts our state on a path to fiscal sustainability. 

 These reforms will put a stop to insurance company abuse and control sky-rocketing premiums and out of pocket costs by strengthening consumer protections, reigning in waste, fraud, and abuse, and  implementing commonsense rules to keep premiums low – which over the  past decade in Texas, rose 5 times faster than income. 500,000  uninsured middle class Texans’ and millions of Texas children’s  fundamental right to adequate medical care was finally won today. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the legislature to  ensure that President Obama’s health care reform initiatives take  effect in our state and that all Texans have access to quality, affordable health care coverage.”