Tom Harkin Quotes

The time is now for Congress to address health care in America.

The best way not to encounter America's health care system is not to have to encounter it.

America's doctors, nurses and medical researchers are the best in the world, but our health care system is broken.

If anything, I don't have to convince the American public that we have a broken health-care system. I think the majority of Americans since they have to go through that health-care system, already know it.

Everyone should have the opportunity to get affordable, quality health coverage.

I have profoundly mixed feelings about the Affordable Care Act. What I love about it is its impulse. It attempts to deal with this intractable problem in American health care life, which is that a significant portion of the population does not have access to quality medical care.

Health care comprises nearly 20 percent of our national economy, but outdated bureaucracy and red tape have stifled competition and raised costs. As a result, today more than 45 million are without any health coverage.

I believe in health care reform.

Because of the president's leadership, every American will have access to affordable, quality health care.

By redesigning our health care system, we are participating in one of the greatest social experiments in American history.

When it comes to health care, the United States is on another planet. The United States spends about 35 percent more per capita than the next two highest-spending countries—Norway and Switzerland…no matter how we measure it—whether by life expectancy or for survival of specific diseases like asthma, heart disease, or some cancers; by the rate of medical errors; or simply by satisfaction with health services, the United States is actually doing worse than a number of countries like France or Germany… America spends far more than other countries, and doesn’t see better results.

We are in the midst of the largest improvement in health care in our nation’s history.

When I hear my friend John Boehner say that we have the best health care in the world, I don't dispute it for a moment. If I were sick, this is the country I want to be in, with these doctors, these hospitals, and these medical professionals.

A majority of Americans think Obamacare will make health care in our country worse, and they're right.

I have stood on the front lines of the health care system as a doctor, patient and concerned parent. Those experiences have served as my guideposts throughout the struggle to reform America's health care system. And it's those same experiences that tell me that fear and election hysteria should not overshadow the reality of reform.

America's health care system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system.

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

Every American has a right to affordable, high-quality health care.

Though President George W. Bush made some small noises about his intention to present some form of improved health coverage, nothing grew out of them.

In this most powerful nation in the world, lack of access to health care should not force local and state governments, companies and workers into bankruptcy, while causing unnecessary illness and hospitalization.

The result was, of course, that today, tragically, more than 40 million Americans don't have health insurance, and for many, not having health insurance means they don't have access to good health care.

The lack of health care coverage has remained very important to me during my time in Congress and as a member of the House Subcommittee on Health, I am working hard with my colleagues to correct these inequalities.

Seven presidents before him - Democrats and Republicans - tried to expand health care to all Americans. President Obama got it done.

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.

We can only imagine what would happen to our health care and to the quality of our health care here in North Dakota if we took the federal government out of health care.