Obama Considers Passage of Health Care Reform Bill Courageous vote

President Obama spoke to reporters Sunday afternoon in the White House Rose Garden about the House's passage of its health care reform bill late Saturday night,

" For years we've been told that this couldn't be done. After all, neither chamber of Congress has been able to pass a comprehensive health insurance reform bill for generations. But last night the house proved differently. The Affordable Health Care for America Act is a piece of legislation that will provide stability and security for Americans who have insurance, quality, affordable options for those who don't and bring down the cost of health care for families, businesses and our government while strengthening the financial health of Medicare."

It is legislation that is fully paid for and it will reduce our long-term federal deficit. Given the heated and often misleading rhetoric surrounding this legislation, I know that this was with a courageous vote for many members of Congress, and I'm grateful to them and for the rest of their colleagues for taking us this far. But, more importantly, so are the millions of Americans whose lives will change when we achieve insurance reform".

"Families with pre-existing conditions who will finally have insurance coverage, parents who will be protected from annual and lifetime limits that can force them to pay exorbitant out-of-pocket costs for a child's illnesses. Small businesses that will be able to cover their employees and working folks that will finally be able to afford health insurance for the very first time.

Americans like Katie Gibson, cancer survivor from Bozeman, Mont., who shared her story with me this summer. Because of a medical condition, Katie's insurance policy was suddenly revoked when she needed it most even though she was paying her premiums. I called Katie this morning, and I told her that when the bill that passed last night becomes law we'll be able to protect Americans just like her from the kinds of insurance company abuses she had to endure. And I told her that it was because of her willingness to share her story and the extraordinary activism that she and people like her all across the country displayed not just this year but over the last several years that we are finally this close to getting reform done. Their lives are what's at stake in this debate.

And moments like this are why they sent us here, to finally meet the challenges that Washington has put off for decades, to make their lives better and this nation stronger, to move America forward. That's what the House did last night when it brought us closer than we have ever been to comprehensive health insurance reform in America. Now it falls on the United States Senate to take the baton and bring this effort to the finish line on behalf of the American people. And I'm absolutely confident that they will.

I'm equally convinced that on the day that we gather here at the White House and I sign comprehensive health insurance reform legislation into law, they'll be able to join their House colleagues and say that this was their finest moment in public service, the moment we delivered change we promised to the American people and did something to leave this country stronger than when we found it."