Ed Pastor Quotes

We need more access to quality health care, not less.

I believe the most important aspect of Medicare is not the structure of the program but the guarantee to all Americans that they will have high quality health care as they get older.

I think most Americans understand that we deserve to have universal health care, as enjoyed by most citizens in most developed countries.

My contention is that if we expand the patient-centered health care approach, we'll have less people that have to go the medical clinic that provides free service or go to the emergency room - they can have their own health care plan.

All Americans should have access to quality, affordable health care.

There is just no reason why the richest nation in the world can't provide health care to all its people.

I believe health care is a civil right.

There is simply not enough money available to support a system in which the lion's share of expenditures is devoted to acute care, with virtually nothing being spent on preventive medicine, i.e. health care.

I think the problem with the country is that we operate on a sickness model, not a wellness model... Basically, we treat people who become ill. What we don't do is do a very good job in keeping them healthy in the first place...

Everyone in this country has a right to quality, affordable health care.

The provision of healthcare in America has been a major policy issue for many decades. From the establishment of Medicare & Medicaid to the Affordable Care Act, we have struggled to find a solution for not just providing access to healthcare - but also becoming a healthier population.

Make health care a right, not a privilege.

I believe in universal health care. And I am not afraid to say so.

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

Every time somebody ends up in a hospital because of a condition that is, we believe, caused by behaviors that they have been willing to pursue, you and I help pay for their care. So we need to try to put some focus on individual responsibility.

If the government didn't try to guarantee that everybody should have access to decent health care, it wouldn't happen.

Health care is a fundamental right of all citizens, not simply a commodity available to the highest bidder.

Public health service should be as fully organized and as universally incorporated into our governmental system as is public education. The returns are a thousand fold in economic benefits, and infinitely more in reduction of suffering and promotion of human happiness.

Healthcare – Control healthcare and you control the people.

We favor the abolition of Medicare and Medicaid Programs.

Some things I don't compromise on. Health care is one of them.

I have worked very, very hard over the course of my time in Congress to make sure that everybody does get access to quality, affordable, accessible health care.

Illinois has the opportunity to lead the country in providing more affordable health care options to its citizens.

The goal should be universal, guaranteed, high-quality health care.

Making sure that people have access to preventive medicine for the first time ever as a nation? That's a big deal.