Health Care & Prescription Drugs News

WASHINGTON, Oct 26 – U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) joined Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) for a Capitol Hill press conference to highlight the public option’s role in improving coverage choices and lowering health care costs.

“Congress must act,” urged Gary Kalman, U.S. PIRG’s Federal Legislative Office Director. “A bloated and inefficient insurance industry has gouged consumers, families and businesses for too long and we have had no recourse.”

According to Kalman, a public option will increase choice and improve competition. “Insurers will finally have to compete for each and every one of our health care dollars.”

U.S PIRG’s recent report, The Three Trillion Dollar Question, concludes that including a public plan in health reform legislation would save between $230-320 billion in national health spending over ten years.

Mr. Kalman’s full remarks are attached.

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U.S. PIRG, the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups, is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organization. For more information visit http://www.uspirg.org.
For more on U.S. PIRG’s Making Health Care Work campaign, click here.
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Kalman_Remarks_Oct28.pdf