An estimated 45.7 million Americans are uninsured, and for those with coverage, health care costs have been rising four times faster than their wages. The average cost of family health-care coverage more than doubled from 1999 to 2008, from $1,543 to $3,354, according to a report by the Institute on Medicine. We need to do better as a nation. President Obama’s recently enacted American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is a good start. Signed into law on February 17, 2009 provides $87 billion to cover state Medicaid programs and offers a 65 percent subsidy for nine months to help the unemployed pay for their COBRA coverage.

COBRA allows the unemployed to pick up the payments and continue the health insurance coverage they had with their former employer. The subsidy would help an estimated seven million Americans, according to a congressional estimate, who would, otherwise be forced to drop coverage altogether due to the high cost of COBRA coverage. President Obama's initiatives provide short-term relief to both the uninsured and underinsured. Specifically, the government will provide a 65% subsidy to businesses who continue Cobra premiums for laid-off employees for a period of 9 months. The President’s plan extends the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act which renews and expands health coverage by an additional 3 million children, to 11 million children. In addition, he proposed a 10-year health care reserve fund of $630 billion to bring down costs and expand coverage. These are sound health policies that I am committed to supporting in the US Congress.