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Long Branch, NJ --- U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, issued the following statement today in response to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS') analysis on the 2006 National Health Expenditure data. The report finds that overall healthcare spending increased last year by 6.7 percent, more than double the rate of overall inflation.
"Today's CMS actuaries report shows that our nation's health care system is in need of serious reform. Health care costs continue to increase often making health care coverage and services unaffordable for hardworking American families.
"This growing problem will become more acute for more and more families as the economy continues to sour under the Bush administration's misguided economic policies. Unfortunately, the administration and Republicans in Congress seem more content with preserving the status quo: overpayments to private insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry to the tune of billions of dollars at the taxpayers' expense.
"Democrats remain committed to changing our nation's health care system for the better and have readily offered solutions that improve affordability and increase access, such as allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices under the Part D benefit and eliminating wasteful spending under the Medicare Advantage program. We will continue to propose solutions that will help ease the financial burden that millions of families face so that they can better afford quality health care."
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