HM 1061

1	House Memorial
2	A memorial to the Congress of the United States, urging
3	Congress to pass legislation that establishes a national
4	universal health care program with a comprehensive range
5	of benefits.
6
7	WHEREAS, every person deserves access to affordable quality
8	health care, and
9	WHEREAS, the number of Floridians without health insurance
10	totals approximately 4 million, and
11	WHEREAS, in 2007, health care spending in the United States
12	averaged $7,421 per person, the health care portion of the
13	national gross domestic product reached 16.2 percent, and health
14	care spending grew at 6.1 percent to $2.2 trillion, and
15	WHEREAS, the United States has the most expensive health
16	care system in the world in terms of absolute costs, per capita
17	costs, and percentage of the gross domestic product, and
18	WHEREAS, health care costs continue to increase,
19	jeopardizing the security of working families and small
20	businesses, and
21	WHEREAS, despite being first in spending, the World Health
22	Organization has ranked the United States health care system
23	37th among all nations, and
24	WHEREAS, among the 30 industrialized nations, only the
25	United States does not have a national universal health care
26	program, and
27	WHEREAS, studies have found that citizens of countries with
28	a national universal health care program have more physician
29	visits and hospital stays than in the United States, and
30	WHEREAS, in January 2004, the Institute of Medicine of the
31	National Academy of Sciences issued a report calling for a
32	national universal health care program in the United States and
33	recommended that health care coverage be universal, continuous,
34	affordable, and sustainable for individuals and families, and
35	determined that such coverage should be designed to enhance the
36	health and well-being of citizens of the United States by
37	promoting access to high-quality health care that is effective,
38	efficient, safe, timely, patient-centered, and equitable, NOW,
39	THEREFORE,
40
41	Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
42
43	That the Congress of the United States is requested to
44	enact legislation that provides for health care coverage for all
45	Americans that includes coverage for preventive health care,
46	physician services, dental care, hospital services, maternity
47	care, mental health services, long-term care, and prescription
48	medications and has affordable cost sharing and a reasonable
49	limit on out-of pocket expenses.
50	BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
51	dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
52	President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
53	United States House of Representatives, and to each member of
54	the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.