Quotes About Health Care Reform

#1. What I was saying back then was that we have a lot of public health costs that taxpayers end up paying for through Medicaid, Medicare, through uncompensated care, because that was in the context of the push for health care reform and that we needed some way to try to defray those costs.

Hillary Clinton

#2. The myopic obsession of the Tea Party with destroying health care reform and wounding the president has led Republicans astray.

Hank Johnson

#3. Obama is capable - as evidenced by his first-term success with health care reform. But mandate-building requires humility, a trait not easily associated with him.

Ron Fournier

#4. Nancy Pelosi says the angry opposition to health care reform is like the angry opposition to gay rights that led to Harvey Milk being shot.

P. J. O'Rourke

#5. True health care reform cannot happen in Washington. It has to happen in our kitchens, in our homes, in our communities. All health care is personal.

Mehmet Oz

#6. Opponents of health care reform would take away consumer protections - siding with the insurance industry instead of the middle class. We can't afford that.

Sander Levin

#7. Health care reform, the marquee legislative accomplishment of the Obama administration's first term, was passed before we entered the world of divided government.

Eliot Spitzer

#8. Take Hispanic voters. They favor Democrats because they like the party's programs, from health care reform to government spending on education. It's not because the Republicans don't have a big enough Office of Hispanic Outreach.

Gail Collins

#9. Whatever we do, it is definitely time that we reboot the health care reform attempt. It's time to completely start over.

Jaime Herrera Beutler

#10. This [health care reform] cannot pass. What we have to do today is make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing. This will not pass.

Michele Bachmann

#11. After a century of striving, after a year of debate, after a historic vote, health care reform is no longer an unmet promise. It is the law of the land.

Barack Obama

#12. When you stop and look at so much of the kind of activism that has been triggered, the Tea Party and the like, as a result of Obama's efforts - TARP, the stimulus package, and now the health care reform - there is a lot of sense this government is changing.

Juan Williams

#13. I support health care reform in this country, but the current bills we have before us are too big, too costly, and the people who send me to Washington to be their voice are opposed to them and this process.

Mike Ross

#14. Yes, I do agree we need health care reform; however, this bill badly misses the mark. Congress can and must do better for the American people.

John Mica

#15. Halloween Costume I Hate: kids dressed as their parent's poltical beliefs. Oooh! Aren't you a scary health care reform bill!

Dana Gould

#16. The health care reform legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last night clearly violates the U.S. Constitution and infringes on each state's sovereignty.

Bill McCollum

#17. We've got to have major health care reform because that is the 800-pound gorilla. That is the thing that can swamp the boat fiscally for the United States.

Kent Conrad

#18. We are the ones who work every day with people who are suffering because they don't have health care. We cannot turn our backs on them, so for us, health care reform is a faith-based response to human need.

Simone Campbell

#19. Well, first let me say that I think health care reform is important. It has to be a priority. And our system is broken. The Finance Committee bill is the best effort yet, due in large measure to the efforts of my colleague, Olympia Snowe, but it's not there yet. It falls short.

Susan Collins

#20. Both referred to the Affordable Care Act, which is the accurate title of the health care reform law, as 'Obamacare.' That is a disparaging reference to the President of the United States, it is meant as a disparaging reference to the President of the United States.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz

#21. If, in fact, the GOP doesn't like any form of health care reform, what do we do with those 40 to 60 million uninsured? ... When they show up in the emergency room, just shoot 'em! Kill them! ... Do we have enough body bags? I don't know.

Montel Williams

#22. In terms of Medicare, I'm in favor of sitting down and having a serious discussion about the likely impact of the Affordable Care Act, health-care reform, on the cost issue and changing the fee-for-service structure.

Sander Levin

#23. When President Obama passed health care reform, it was personal! And when Governor Romney says he would repeal Obamacare and put insurance companies back in charge of a woman's health, that's personal too.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz

#24. So was it a political mistake for Obama to put so many eggs in the health-care-reform basket? Well, a negative decision from the Supreme Court will certainly make it appear so.

Eric Alterman

#25. There is a consensus of willing leaders from both parties coalescing around the right way forward in health care. Reform should address government-imposed inequities and barriers to true choice and competition.

Paul Ryan

#26. Democrats believe we must have comprehensive health care reform that includes giving the federal government authority to negotiate lower prices with drug companies.

Jim Clyburn

#27. The truth is that health-care reform will always be a nuisance, with version 2.0 followed by next year's 2.1. As long as it boosts productivity, it's worth it.

Jim Cooper

#28. Nurses are on the front lines of our care. And they need to be at the foundation of health care reform. Let's get health care done - and done right - by ensuring the amount of nurses we need to provide quality care for all.

Kirsten Gillibrand

#29. It's been a mystery to me and a disappointment why conversation about health care reform hasn't turned more attention to the subject of food.

Michael Pollan

#30. I'm one of those that have said, one of my key principles is I will not support a health care reform bill that is not deficit-neutral, period.

Mike Ross

#31. The reason Gov. Romney passed Romneycare as governor of Massachusetts in 2006 was because many Republicans viewed health care reform, mandates and all, as a way to inoculate against Democratic charges that Republicans didn't care about people who lacked health insurance.

Ari Fleischer

#32. I believe in health care reform.

Joe Manchin

#33. We will push through health care reform regardless of the views of the American people.

Jay Rockefeller

#34. I have been absolutely clear where I'm coming from about health care reform. This is something this nation has to do and a robust public option has been the mantra of my campaign from the very outset.

John Garamendi

#35. President Obama hosted lawmakers Thursday saying he wanted bipartisan input on health care reform. Nobody's mind was changed. At the summit's end he threatened to go with the nuclear option, showing he's tougher on Republicans than he is on Iran.

Argus Hamilton

#36. The national debate on health-care reform wildly misses the mark, with Democrats and Republicans alike arguing about who's going to pay rather than about what would actually make people healthy.

T. Colin Campbell

#37. During the summer of 2009, the debate on health care reform was emotional and intense. At its best, it represented the free exchange of ideas that makes this country great. At its worst, it generated death threats and acts of violence.

Chellie Pingree

#38. The U.S. government has been preoccupied with health care 'reform,' but this refers to improving access and insurance coverage and has little or nothing to do with innovation.

Eric Topol

#39. [Write to your congressional representative against the health care reform proposal or] we will awake to find that we have socialism.

Ronald Reagan

#40. Over and over again, I hear from Oregonians that we need real health care reform that provides every American with access to quality, affordable care.

Jeff Merkley

#41. Liberal that I am, I support health-care reform on its merits alone. My liberal blood boils, for example, when I read that half of the personal bankruptcies in this country are brought on, in part, by medical expenses.

Thomas Frank

#42. Many of us believe that we need health care reform. That being said - Americans felt like they weren't being listened to. There were a lot of people across the political spectrum who said we don't want a one-size-fits-all healthcare plan.

Timothy Griffin

#43. Have you ever noticed how statists are constantly "reforming" their own handiwork? Education reform. Health-care reform. Welfare reform. Tax reform. The very fact they're always busy "reforming" is an implicit admission that they didn't get it right the first 50 times.

Lawrence W. Reed

#44. The words, 'penalty,' 'restrict' and 'violate' appeared more times in President Clinton's health care reform bill than in his crime bill.

Steve Forbes

#45. While we clearly need health-care reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system.

John Mackey

#46. In 2008, I was one of millions united for hope and change. As 2010 dawns, change looks to me like more of the same. Instead of peace, we got more war. Instead of health care reform, we have an industry win that requires Americans to buy health insurance without any real cost controls.

Jodie Evans

#47. Only in America does 'health' 'care' 'reform' begin with the hiring of 16,500 new IRS agents tasked with determining whether your insurance policy merits a fine.

Mark Steyn

#48. I'm not saying we don't need health care reform. We do need health care reform.

Jim Renacci

#49. The bottom line: health care reform is about the patient, not about the physician.

Abraham Verghese

#50. President Obama, through health care reform, strengthened Medicare. How did he do that? Well, he found savings by cutting subsidies to insurance companies, ensuring we were rooting out waste and fraud, and he used those savings to put it back into Medicare.

Stephanie Cutter

#51. It's not health care reform to dump more money into Medicaid.

Phil Bredesen

#52. [Barack Obama failed to sell a health care reform plan to American voters] because the utter implausibility of its central promise - expanded coverage at lower cost - led voters to conclude that it would lead ultimately to more government, more taxes and more debt.

Charles Krauthammer

#53. Health care is a far more serious, immediate and destructive problem than social security ... The upfront investment needed to fund system wide [health care] reform ... would be far offset by the savings.

Henry Simmons

#54. As Congress focuses on comprehensive health care reform, one thing needs to be clear: We cannot fix health care if we do not address America's nursing shortage.

Kirsten Gillibrand

#55. I always am a firm believer in you compensate people for their job, and so I did give them bonuses. We accomplished a lot in Congress, we passed health care reform. There were threats against their lives; they had a tough two years. They'd forgone any cost-of-living increase or any bonus before.

John Salazar

#56. We will have health care reform in America.

Dick Durbin

#57. Reconciliation cannot be used to pass comprehensive health care reform. It won't work because it was never designed for that kind of significant legislation; it was designed for deficit reduction.

Kent Conrad

#58. One of the best aspects of health care reform is it starts to emphasize prevention.

Anne Wojcicki

#59. A lot of people say, 'Why do health-care reform when the deficits are so big?' But that is when we've got to do it.

Mike Ross

#60. Got good news and bad news for you, Mr. President. The good news is that Chief Justice John Roberts just saved your legacy and, perhaps, your presidency by writing for the Supreme Court majority to rule health care reform constitutional.

Ron Fournier

#61. Every time I hear a Republican talking about health care reform, they say the American people don't want it. They say it so much that I think they're beginning to try to convince themselves that it's true.

John Yarmuth

#62. If we're able to stop Obama on [health care reform], it will be his Waterloo. It will break him and we will show that we can, along with the American people, begin to push those freedom solutions that work in every area of our society.

Jim DeMint

#63. If the goal of health-care reform is to provide comprehensive, universal health care in a cost-effective way, the only honest approach is a single-payer approach.

Bernie Sanders

#64. When it comes to the health of our families, Barack refused to listen to all those folks who told him to leave health reform for another day, another president. He didn't care whether it was the easy thing to do politically - that's not how he was raised - he cared that it was the right thing to do.

Michelle Obama

#65. Reversing the escalation of health care costs is going to need more than legislation, yet it can be done without imposing rationing, as critics of reform fear.

Mitch Kapor

#66. The government is a heartbeat away from nationalizing health care based on deliberate misinformation about the nation's uninsured and despite the 100 percent failure rate of such fantastic reforms elsewhere on the globe.

David Limbaugh

#67. Cost is the spectre haunting health reform. For many decades, the great flaw in the American health-care system was its unconscionable gaps in coverage.

Atul Gawande

#68. Costs for liability insurance are higher than costs for many procedures. There is a need to reform liability laws to stop out-of-control health care costs.

Temple Grandin

#69. It is hard to talk about a middle ground for something that is a fundamental right.

Teri Reynolds

#70. I think we can see how blessed we are in America to have access to the kind of health care we do if we are insured, and even if uninsured, how there is a safety net. Now, as to the problem of how much health care costs and how we reform health care ... it is another story altogether.

Abraham Verghese

#71. In every industrialized nation, the movement to reform health care has begun with stories about cruelty.

Atul Gawande

#72. Thanks to health reform, women across the country with private insurance can get birth control without paying out of pocket. This lets women make the health care decisions that are right for them and puts every one of us in charge of our own reproductive health.

Ann McLane Kuster

#73. Without Free Choice Vouchers, there is little in the health reform law that discourages employers from increasingly passing the burden of health care costs onto their employees.

Ron Wyden

#74. The thing they're trying to stop is 30-million people getting health insurance. That's the substance.

Chris Hayes

#75. I admired the way McCain worked on campaign finance reform. I admired the way Nancy Pelosi stiffened the Democrats' spine during the health care debate. I admire the way Barack Obama has raised a dog in the White House without ever putting it on the roof of the car for a vacation drive.

Gail Collins

#76. I understand that in these difficult economic times, the potential for any additional expense is not welcomed by American businesses. But in the long run, the health insurance reform law promises to cut health-care costs for U.S. businesses, not expand them.

Gary Locke

#77. It is hard to miss the irony in the fact that the very same week that Republicans were publicly heralding Congressman Paul Ryan's plan to inject market forces into the American health care system, they were crafting a budget deal to strip them from the health reform law.

Ron Wyden

#78. I welcome the President and working with him to try to get some of that medical malpractice reform so we can get the cost of health care to come down.

Ben Quayle

#79. This is the opposite of the free market.

Bill Maher

#80. The forces that have worked hard to stoke populist anger against reform are the very ones that benefit from a health system which puts profits ahead of quality care for its patients.

Jerrold Nadler

#81. I'm intending to work on juvenile justice reform, sentencing reform, reentry, drug treatment, access to mental health care.

Cory Booker

#82. In the first two years this is a man [Clinton] who tried his best to balance the budget, to reform health care, to fight for gay rights, to support personal freedoms. Couldn't those be considered doing the right things, evidence of true character?

Bryant Gumbel

#83. Proximity to power has an unsurprising ability to mutate a politician's spinal cord into bright yellow jelly.

Tariq Ali

#84. What we clearly need is experimentation with market reforms and private delivery options [in health care].

Stephen Harper

#85. The health care bill is nothing about health care- it's about controlling the people.

David Lincoln

#86. When I became president with a commitment to reform health care, Hillary was a natural to head the health care task force. You all know we failed because we couldn't break a Senate filibuster. Hillary immediately went to work on solving the problems the bill sought to address one by one.

William J. Clinton

#87. I basically believe the medical insurance industry should be nonprofit, not profit-making. There is no way a health reform plan will work when it is implemented by an industry that seeks to return money to shareholders instead of using that money to provide health care.

Dianne Feinstein

#88. Successful health reform must not just make health insurance affordable, affordable health insurance has to make health care affordable.

Elizabeth Edwards

#89. Let's run the experiment.

Chris Hayes

#90. Health is a human necessity; health is a human right

James Lenhart