Florida Senate - 2009                                    SM 2642
       
       
       
       By Senator Aronberg
       
       
       
       
       27-02008-09                                           20092642__
    1                           Senate Memorial                         
    2         A memorial to the Congress of the United States,
    3         urging Congress to pass legislation that establishes a
    4         national universal health care program with 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 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.