U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., was on hand today when President Barack Obama signed the historic health-care legislation passed by the House on Sunday.
Bingaman was a key author of the legislation.
“This is an historic day – one that will have a very positive impact on New Mexico families,” Bingaman said following the bill-signing event. “Because of this new law, insurance companies can no longer decide to cancel health-care coverage for a New Mexican who has a pre-existing medical condition. New Mexicans will no longer be forced to pay higher premiums to cover the health-care costs of their uninsured neighbors.”
“This law will help contain rapidly rising health-care costs that are hitting New Mexico families hard, particularly during this economic downturn. It also will expand affordable and quality care to the hundreds of thousands of New Mexicans who have been living without health insurance. And it will do so in a way that will help us reduce the national deficit by a $1 trillion over the next two decades,” he said.
“In enacting this legislation, we have taken a giant step forward in fixing our broken health-care system,” Bingaman said.
Bingaman also said he expects the Senate to pass a smaller bill later this week that will make a few adjustments to the new law. That bill has already been approved by the House.
New Mexico’s senior U.S. senator appeared on Monday evening on the Charlie Rose program to talk about the health-care reform legislation. You can watch here or read the transcript of the interview here.
Update, 11:35 a.m.
U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., had this to say:
“Today is a new day for health care in our country. New Mexicans have waited generations for health insurance reform. With this new law, we establish a strong foundation to build upon moving forward. While there are still many challenges before us, today we make great progress in our effort to ensure that every American has access to quality, affordable health care.”