Senator Collins Meets with President Obama to discuss Health Care Reform

July 17, 2009 Washington, D.C. –At the request of the President, Senator Susan Collins today attended an hour-long meeting in the Oval Office to discuss her thoughts on health care reform. Following the meeting, she released this statement: “We had a very good discussion and I am very impressed with the President’s sincere openness to my thoughts on how to expand access to affordable health care coverage and to reform our health care system to improve outcomes and lower costs. “Clearly, soaring health insurance premiums have made insurance increasingly unaffordable for many families and small businesses, and there are far too many Americans without health insurance or with woefully inadequate coverage. “During our meeting, we discussed the contents, the goals, and the timetable for health care reform legislation. I spoke about the importance of delivery system reforms. The State of Maine is a high-quality, low-cost state, and it is critical that our state’s health care providers are not harmed by reforms. We must focus on holding on to what is good about our system and improving what is not working. “This is a major challenge. Health care affects every single person in our country and represents one sixth of our nation’s economy. That is why I urged the President not to set an artificial deadline governing such an important bill. We must proceed in a deliberative, bipartisan and careful fashion. Rushed legislation won’t be nearly as well thought out as it should be, it will cost more than it should, and the process will be divisive.”