Washington, D.C., February 2, 2011
— The U.S. Senate
today voted down a measure to overturn the Affordable Care Act, an outcome welcomed
by the public health community.
“Now that
the symbolic votes have been taken in both the House and Senate, Congress needs
to get back to work and allow this law to do what it’s intended: protect the
lives, improve the health and safeguard the economic well-being of the American
people,” said Georges C. Benjamin, MD, FACP, FACEP (E), executive director of
the American Public Health Association.
“In case
anyone has forgotten, we still have a crisis in our nation’s health system,”
said Benjamin. “We must continue to move forward in aggressively implementing
the Affordable Care Act.”
According
to Benjamin, the law includes meaningful solutions to the complex problems
plaguing our nation’s health system. It provides funding for prevention and
wellness programs that will improve the health of our communities; it covers an
additional 32 million uninsured Americans; it bolsters our public health and
primary care workforce, which will increase access to health and public health
services; and it improves the overall quality of the nation's health system,
reducing the number of preventable medical errors.