Presenter
Presented by Mr. Peduto
Body
WHEREAS, "health care is an essential safeguard of human life and dignity and there is an obligation for society to ensure that every person be able to realize this right,"; and
WHEREAS, there are 43 million Americans and 1 million Pennsylvanians who have no health insurance and approximately 50% of all personal bankruptcies are the related to health care costs and the use of credit cards as a last means of funding care for an individual or their loved ones only adds to the cost of such care through higher interest rates associated with unsecured revolving credit; and
WHEREAS, Pennsylvania spends significantly more per capita on health care than many other states, putting our state and our local small and private businesses at a competitive disadvantage to other states and to all the foreign countries where governments provide universal health care; and
WHEREAS, public finances are being spent to provide everyone in the Commonwealth with healthcare today, it is just in the emergency room, which is an inefficient place to provide routine health care; and
WHEREAS, by many estimates 25% of what we spend on health care is spent on administration, overhead, billing, and collection.
Title
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh urges the General Assembly and the Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to further investigate and consider measures to begin to reform the way in which the Commonwealth provides health care; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh recommends the consideration of the Comprehensive Health Care Reform Act of 2005 as a starting point for health care reform in Pennsylvania.