Dr. Gill Reacts to Passage of Health Insurance Reform

Press Release

Dr. David M. Gill, an Emergency Room physician in Bloomington and the Democratic candidate for Illinois' 15th Congressional District, issued the following statement in response to passage of the contentious health care reform package:

"Today, Pres. Obama signed into law the first set of fixes to comprehensive health insurance reform, ending a century of attempts to codify health care as a fundamental human right for all Americans. It ends or mitigates a number of egregious practices by the insurance industry, including denial or cancellation of coverage for pre-existing conditions and annual and lifetime caps on claim expenditures. It increases funding for wellness programs and community clinics, and allows children to remain on their parents' policy to age 26. This law is a step, albeit a small one, in the right direction.

We have seen a lot of theatrics and hyperbole on both sides of the aisle, obscuring and distorting many vital elements of real health care reform. Unfortunately, this deeply flawed law will not provide substantive and sweeping reform to our broken health care system. Written primarily by lobbyists for the health insurance industry, it misses crucial opportunities to control health care-related costs. It provides no real competition for private insurance companies, and ignores the pressing need for reform of malpractice insurance reform.

Until we break the corporate lock on campaign financing, we will fail to achieve real and transformative reform in the health care, financial, and energy industries."

Dr. Gill also criticized his opponent, five-term incumbent Tim Johnson, for helping obstruct health care reform while offering no substantive or viable alternatives, then leaping on the futile Republican bandwagon to repeal the new law and encouraging costly and frivolous lawsuits aimed at its blockage.

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