WASHINGTON, D.C. – For the past year, Chairman Edward M. Kennedy, Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), and other Democratic Members and staff of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) have been working to develop legislation that reduces health care costs, allows Americans to keep the coverage they have if they want it, and makes health insurance affordable to those who do not have it today.

Today, while discussions between HELP Committee Democrats and Republicans on key outstanding issues continue, they released the landmark “Affordable Health Choices Act.” Click here for a copy of the bill, http://help.senate.gov/BAI09A84_xml.pdf.

Senator Mikulski was tapped by Senator Kennedy to lead one of three Senate HELP work groups on health care reform. In that capacity, Senator Mikulski has led efforts to ensure the landmark legislation released today improves the quality of health care for all Americans. Senator Mikulski has presided over seven Senate HELP hearings focusing on improving quality of care since assuming this role.

“Our health care system is a crisis for American families and President Obama and members of Congress of both parties recognize the urgency of the problem. Our goal is to strengthen what works and fix what doesn’t. Over the next few days, we will continue working with our Republican colleagues on common sense solutions that reduce skyrocketing health care costs, assure quality care for all and provide affordable health insurance choices. Much work remains, and the coming days and weeks won’t be easy. But we have a unique opportunity to give the American people, at long last, the health care they need and deserve,” Chairman Kennedy said.

“We can’t fix the economy without fixing health care so families can afford it and businesses can afford it. We can’t afford not to fix health care,” said Senator Mikulski, who was asked by Chairman Kennedy to lead the Senate effort on improving health care quality. “A national health care quality strategy will provide solutions to the biggest problems – medical errors, preventable hospital readmissions and failure to manage chronic disease – that severely impact people, their lives, their checkbooks and national health care costs. Emphasizing quality improves lives, saves lives and helps pay for reform by saving money.”

“Health care reform cannot and must not wait. Today, we will introduce legislation that will strengthen what works and fix what doesn’t. If you like the insurance you have today, you can keep it. If you don’t like what you have today, we’ll give you better choices, including a public option for health care. This does not symbolize the end of the game or even the end of the first quarter. We still have a lot of work ahead of us and are looking forward to working with our colleagues on a bipartisan basis to resolve the remaining issues and move forward with a mark-up of this legislation next week,” Senator Dodd said.

“All stakeholders in the health reform debate agree one of the keys to reining in the rising costs of health care in this country is to reduce chronic disease. Data shows that with an investment of $10 per person per year, community prevention programs could yield net savings of more than $18 billion annually within 10 to 20 years,” said Senator Harkin. “This reform provides one of the largest investments in prevention and wellness initiatives, offering choices throughout the health care system. At the federal level, it creates a new inter-agency council to develop a national health strategy and a dedicated funding stream to support these efforts; at the clinical level, it provides coverage of preventive services and the elimination of co-pays and deductibles for these services; and at the grassroots level offers grants for community initiatives. It short, it realigns incentives to make it easier to be healthy and removes the barriers to preventive services like screenings for diabetes, depression, tobacco cessation, and nutrition counseling – to name just a few.”

“This bill introduction marks a very important step toward fixing our nation’s broken health care system. As we continue developing this measure in the coming days and weeks, our primary goal will be to ensure that all Americans have access to affordable and quality health care,” Senator Bingaman said.

“Our health care reform bill is a step toward ensuring all Americans can see a doctor when they need one and that our long term economic strength is not held captive by the skyrocketing cost of care,” Senator Murray said. “I applaud my colleagues for the hours of work they have all put in and thank Senators Kennedy and Dodd for their leadership in moving this forward. I am particularly proud that as we work to offer quality, affordable coverage to all Americans that we have included a plan to ensure we have enough health care professionals to provide that care. We still have work to do, but this bill is a good step forward on protecting patient choice, lowering costs and providing coverage for the millions of Americans who currently have none.”

The HELP Committee is on track to meeting the goal of having this landmark legislation marked-up in June and on the Senate floor by July. On Wednesday, June 10 and Thursday, June 11, Democrats and Republicans on the Committee will meet to discuss outstanding legislative options such as the public option and employer mandate. A public hearing is scheduled for Thursday, June 11 at 3 p.m. in Dirksen 430. Mark-up will begin Tuesday, June 16 at 2:30 p.m. in Russell 325.