As Congress prepares for Sen. Edward Kennedy’s long-awaited healthcare overhaul bill, American Health Choices Act, to be introduced, a bipartisan group of city, county, and state officials joined together with leaders from Borinquen Health Care Center, Jackson Memorial Hospital and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Florida to lend support for comprehensive healthcare reform that includes a high quality and affordable public health insurance option.

"It's time for quality, affordable, assessable healthcare for all. Our nation's healthcare system is in a state of emergency," said Martha Baker, RN, President of SEIU Local 1991, representing the nurses, doctors and healthcare professionals in the Jackson Health System. "Our broken system has failed in quality and cost effectiveness.  Not only are we 37th in quality outcomes, but we deliver healthcare more expensively than anyone else on earth."

With an estimated 600,000 people in Miami-Dade who are uninsured, lawmakers expect Kennedy’s bill, which includes a policy backed by the government for the public good, will help ease the economic strain put on hospitals and premiums of those with insurance. A recent report in the American Journal of Medicine found medical bills are involved in more than 60 percent of U.S. personal bankruptcies. Three-fourths of those were families with health insurance.

###
Florida Facts at a Glance (sources available in “Value of Reform” report)

•    Over 3.7 million Floridians do not have healthcare coverage

•    700,000 children in Florida are uninsured

•    Florida ranks third in the nation for uninsured children

•    Uninsured Floridians are more likely to frequent hospital emergency rooms as their primary source of care

•    Premiums increased in Florida from 2000 to 2007 by 72%.

•    850 Florida residents lost their health insurance in December 2008 and January 2009.