Florida Senate - 2010                                      SM 74
       
       
       
       By Senator Aronberg
       
       
       
       
       27-00130-10                                             201074__
    1                           Senate Memorial                         
    2         A memorial to the Congress of the United States,
    3         urging Congress to enact legislation that establishes
    4         a national universal health care program having a
    5         comprehensive range 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 that
   28  have a national universal health care program benefit from more
   29  physician visits and hospital stays than in the United States,
   30  and
   31         WHEREAS, in January 2004, the Institute of Medicine of the
   32  National Academy of Sciences issued a report calling for a
   33  national universal health care program in the United States and
   34  recommended that health care coverage be universal, continuous,
   35  affordable, and sustainable for individuals and families, and
   36  determined that such coverage should be designed to enhance the
   37  health and well-being of citizens of the United States by
   38  promoting access to high-quality health care that is effective,
   39  efficient, safe, timely, patient-centered, and equitable, NOW,
   40  THEREFORE,
   41  
   42  Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   43  
   44         That the Congress of the United States is requested to:
   45         (1) Enact legislation that provides health care coverage
   46  for all Americans, that includes coverage for preventive health
   47  care, physician services, dental care, hospital services,
   48  maternity care, mental health services, long-term care, and
   49  prescription medications, and that has affordable cost sharing
   50  and a reasonable limit on out-of-pocket expenses; and
   51         (2) Study all models and proposed systems and enact only
   52  the model that is the simplest to administrate, has the least
   53  amount of administrative overhead, reduces costs the most,
   54  offers coverage that is more comprehensive than that which is
   55  currently available on the market, and controls costs so that
   56  benefits are sustainable.
   57         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
   58  dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
   59  President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
   60  United States House of Representatives, and to each member of
   61  the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.