Bill Text: MO HCR51 | 2011 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Urges the United States Congress to enact the Improved and Expanded Medicare for All Act
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-04-12 - Referred: Health Insurance (H) [HCR51 Detail]
Download: Missouri-2011-HCR51-Introduced.html
FIRST REGULAR SESSION
House Concurrent Resolution No. 51
96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES OXFORD (Sponsor), PACE, WALTON GRAY, McDONALD, McGEOGHEGAN, ELLINGER, SCHUPP, McNEIL, KIRKTON, NEWMAN, LAMPE, MONTECILLO, ATKINS, AULL, FALLERT, BROWN (50), HODGES, SCHIEFFER, JONES (63), SMITH (71), WEBB, CARTER, PETERS-BAKER, MAY, HUGHES, PIERSON AND TALBOY (Co-sponsors).
WHEREAS, every person in Missouri and the United States deserves access to affordable, quality health care; and
WHEREAS, there is a growing crisis in health care in the United States, manifested in rising health care costs, increased premiums, out-of-pocket spending, decreased international business competitiveness, and massive layoffs; and
WHEREAS, approximately 827,000 Missourians lacked health insurance in 2009; and
WHEREAS, those insured now often experience unacceptable medical debt and sometimes life-threatening delays in obtaining health care; and
WHEREAS, one-half of all personal bankruptcies are due to illnesses or medical bills; and
WHEREAS, the rising cost of insuring state employees and teachers can best be met, not by limiting benefits, but by expanding them under a national, publicly funded health insurance program; and
WHEREAS, the complex bureaucracy arising from our system of fragmented, for-profit, multi-payer system of health care financing consumes approximately 30% of United States health care spending; and
WHEREAS, these problems are not solved by the 2010 federal health care reform legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; and
WHEREAS, independent research by Kenneth E. Thorpe, PhD, found in 2003 that if Missouri adopted a single payer, universal health program with benefits more generous than 75% of all private insurance benefits in the state, Missouri health care spending would decline by a savings of $1.3 billion in administrative costs alone under a streamlined administrative structure; and
WHEREAS, United States Representative John Conyers has introduced H.R. 676, the Improved and Expanded Medicare for All Act, in the United States House of Representatives for the 112th Congress, and this act would provide a universal, comprehensive, single-payer system of high quality national health insurance:
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the members of the House of Representatives of the Ninety-sixth General Assembly, First Regular Session, the Senate concurring therein, hereby respectfully urge the United States Congress to enact the Improved and Expanded Medicare for All Act sponsored by United States Representative John Conyers; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Chief Clerk of the Missouri House of Representatives be instructed to prepare a properly inscribed copy of this resolution for the President of the United States and each member of the Missouri Congressional Delegation.
