Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today joined several of his Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee colleagues to urge passage of a health care bill that will provide affordable, quality care to all Americans.

“More than 45 million Americans lack health insurance, and another 25 million have insurance that doesn’t meet their needs. We now have an historic opportunity to fix our nation’s broken health care system and ensure that all Americans have access to affordable and quality health care,” Bingaman said.

The HELP Committee on Wednesday morning will begin consideration of The Affordable Health Choices Act – a measure aimed at reducing health care costs, protecting choice and guaranteeing quality. Nurses, medical students, and individuals with first-hand experience joined Bingaman and his colleagues at a Capitol Hill news conference in support of reforming our broken health care system.

Bingaman is also a member of the Senate Finance Committee, which is the other Senate committee that has jurisdiction over health care reform. Bingaman is the only Democratic senator of the HELP and Finance committees.