To learn more about what the health care reform legislation will do for you, visit www.healthcare.gov or click here to visit Speaker Nancy Pelosi's health care resources page. You'll find information about the provisions that take effect immediately, how the bill will help seniors and small businesses, and all the changes you can expect to see as the bill gets implemented.

The passage of national health care reform legislation was the culmination of a long process.  One of the main reasons I decided to go into public service was to improve our health care system. As a physician, I had seen America’s flawed approach to providing care and understood what was needed to fix it.

Each year that I served in Congress, I faced the institutional resistance to the creation of a more orderly system. Yet people complained they couldn't get care.  Hospitals complained about uncompensated care.  People complained about cost shifting of the expenses of the uninsured onto the policies paid for by the insured.

Now our Congress has passed a landmark healthcare reform bill that tightly regulates health insurance companies and greatly improves our current system.

In the 7th District of Washington alone, the bill will:

• Improve coverage of 479,000 residents with health insurance;
• Give tax credits and other assistance to up to 157,000 families and 21,300 small businesses to help them afford coverage;
• Improve Medicare for 84,000 beneficiaries;
• Extend coverage to 29, 500 uninsured residents;
• Guarantee that 8,900 residents with pre-existing conditions can obtain coverage;
• Protect 800 families from bankruptcy due to unaffordable health care; and
• Allow 61,000 young adults to obtain coverage on their parent’s insurance plans.

I have been a life-long advocate of a single-payer system, which would eliminate profit driven private health insurance companies from health care. While I believe this approach is the best solution for our health care system, I know it’s not the only solution.  I remain a committed advocate of a single-payer system and hope that as we improve and amend the bill Congress passed, we will take steps in that direction.

I recently wrote a piece in the Huffington Post that outlined what I call the House of Health—my vision of how I think we need to get the job done with health reform. I use the analogy that health reform is like building a house, and that we first need to get the house built and get everyone inside. Afterwards, we can worry about fixing the knobs on the cabinets and finding the right marble for the countertops in the kitchen. We need to make sure everyone is inside first and has access to health coverage, and then we can work on improving the system and working out the details—which is exactly what the health reform will accomplish.

While I proudly cast my vote in favor of the bill, I know it is far from perfect.  When the Social Security Act was passed in 1935, it was also far from perfect, and it has been revised and improved in nearly every year since. The same goes for Medicare and Medicaid—both are great programs that have helped many people, but both have also had to be amended yearly.

We still have a lot of work to do on health care, and the legislation we passed will require continued efforts to adjust and improve it in the years to come.  But after 100 years of trying, we’ve finally passed meaningful health care reform legislation. 

Below are some highlights of legislation I have introduced or supported over the past few years.

My Single Payer Legislation: the American Health Security Act

Every other industrialized nation in the world provides universal health care to its citizens. Under the complicated, employer-based American system, average health care spending per person is double what Europeans spend - and many people still have no coverage.  In nearly every new session of Congress, I introduce, the American Health Security Act (HR 1200), which would provide coverage for every American, control costs, and enhance the quality of the health care system.

Global HIV/ AIDS
In 1987, I left politics to serve as a Foreign Service medical officer based in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), where the AIDS epidemic was in full bloom. When I started in Congress, I knew that I had to help my colleagues understand what was going on and what we needed to do to fix it. Since then, HIV/AIDS-related issues have been one of my priorities. As a Co-Chair and Founder of the Congressional Task Force on HIV/AIDS, I am committed to increasing U.S. funding for prevention, treatment and research for HIV/AIDS worldwide. The global HIV/AIDS epidemic affects every nation on the planet. The rapid spread of the HIV/AIDS virus has devastated families, communities and entire nations and shows no sign of slowing.

Currently, more than 30 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, of whom over 20 million reside in sub-Saharan Africa. The enormous impact of HIV/AIDS on Africa has prompted a growing U.S. commitment to fighting the disease by increasing funding for AIDS programs in Africa and providing less costly drugs to African nations. Although Congress’ focus has been primarily on the African epidemic, experts are also alarmed at the rapid spread of the virus in Asia.

I am a strong supporter of community-based measures, from the free distribution of condoms, to the provision of preventive medicines for babies born to HIV-positive mothers. While there are many difficulties inherent in attempting to fund overseas community work, I remain dedicated to that objective.