Richard Lamm Quotes

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.

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.

Medical costs are soaring because our health-care system is totally screwed up. Doctors and hospitals have every incentive to spend on unnecessary tests, drugs, and procedures.

America enjoys the best health care in the world, but the best is no good if folks can't afford it, access it and doctor's can't provide it.

Obama achieved something in his first year with health care that successive presidents have been unable to achieve.

Our system of private health insurance that fails to provide coverage to so many of our citizens also contributes to the double-digit health care inflation that is making America less competitive in the global economy.

It's easier to lecture women on sexual morality than it is to explain why all Americans shouldn't have comprehensive, fair, and equal health care coverage.

In health care, the biggest imperative is: Fix those who cannot get insurance without changing the world for everyone else.

I think that we have a number of different health care challenges in our country, and certainly addressing the uninsured is one, and the second is making sure that those with health insurance actually get the care that they assume they'll have available to them if they get sick.

The national debate on health care once centered on improving access to quality care, yet the effect of Obamacare will be the exact opposite, resulting in the shameful degradation of care for the neediest individuals.

I believe in health care reform.

Looking at affordable health care, I think it is important that we look not only at prescription drugs, but also make sure that there is a major focus on health care.

I think the thing that the American people want is for the divisive debate on health care to stop.

The United States has the best health system in the world. Unfortunately this is true only for those who can afford it.

High-quality health care is not available to millions of Americans who don't have health insurance, or whose substandard plans provide minimum coverage. That's why the Affordable Care Act is so important. It provides quality health insurance to both the uninsured and underinsured.

If we do nothing, as the Republicans suggest, we're going to see health care costs reach a point where small businesses can't afford it and families can't afford it. We're going to see people turned down from pre-existing conditions. We're going to find the Medicare doughnut hole - a gap in coverage that's going to hurt a lot of seniors.

Vote Republican if you like, but don't kid yourself that a Republican president would replace Obamacare with anything at all.

Health care is not a privilege. It's a right. It's a right as fundamental as civil rights. It's a right as fundamental as giving every child a chance to get a public education.

My doctor gave me six months to live, but when I couldn't pay the bill he gave me six months more.

It's a disgrace that we have millions of people who are uninsured.

Health care in America, despite all you hear, still offers us citizens one of the most efficient and highest quality systems in the world. But it's expensive, and it's only getting worse.

Too many Americans who are uninsured or under-insured do not receive regular checkups because they can't afford coverage or their insurance doesn't cover enough of the costs. The lack of preventive care results in countless emergency room visits and health care disasters for families.

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

One thing governors feel, Democrats and Republicans alike, is that we have a health care system that, if you're on Medicaid, you have unlimited access to health care, at unlimited levels, at no cost. No wonder it's running away.

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