Washington, DC--Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY-17) issued the following statement after joining in the meeting of the Democratic Caucus and President Barack Obama on Capitol Hill today. The House will vote tomorrow on the Senate-passed health care reform legislation, and on a separate bill of alterations to be sent to the Senate for passage. Rep. Engel is a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health, and was instrumental in ensuring specific changes in the reconciliation bill to provide fair and equitable treatment New York and other “do-gooder” states.

“President Obama came to the Capitol to make clear what is at stake with tomorrow’s vote - the passage of comprehensive health care reform. It was once said by a President of the United States that ‘Comprehensive health insurance is an idea whose time has come in America. There has long been a need to assure every American financial access to high quality health care. As medical costs go up, that need grows more pressing.’ That was not spoken by President Obama, or even former President Bill Clinton. It was spoken in 1974 by former Republican President Richard Nixon. The need for health care reform is not new, sadly it is quite old, and it is not something that should be the work of one party. President Nixon knew it then, and now the need has been compounded by another 36 years of inaction.

“Tomorrow, the House will vote on these two bills to bring health reform to America. It will be one of the most historic days in the history of this great Chamber. If the bills both pass, and I believe they will, it will mean that 12,000 people in my district with pre-existing conditions will be able to obtain health coverage. It will mean that 55,000 young adults in the district will be able to receive health coverage on their parents’ plans. It will result in 16 community health centers in the Bronx, Rockland and Westchester Counties receiving millions of dollars in funding to provide improved care for residents.

“These are just a few benefits found in one corner of America. Millions of Americans will benefit from reform. This is why in the last 24 hours; AARP, the American Medical Association and the American Hospital Association have joined over 325 organizations supporting health reform. It is the right thing to do for America, and finally we will be bringing health care reform to the reality of becoming law.”