Making health care more affordable

In the Declaration of Independence our nation’s founders set forth one of the earliest promises of our country: that every American would have the unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The fact is that none of those rights can exist without access to health care.

When the Affordable Care Act (ACA) became law of the land, millions of American families gained health insurance, many for the first time in their lives. In addition to expanding coverage, the ACA made great strides in transforming our country’s network of doctors, hospitals and clinics from a “sick care” system to a “health care” system, helping hospitals and doctors coordinate care for their patients and deliver better, healthier outcomes.

Helping to pass the ACA was one of my proudest achievements as a senator, but just like Medicare before it, we didn’t get everything right the first time and we need to make it better. We should be working together, Republican and Democrat alike, to continue to improve our health care system and reduce out-of-pocket costs for consumers.