Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius: Good afternoon everybody. And, um, I appreciate you joining us today. Um, as you know, here in Washington people are working hard to push forward health reform and we know that there's some urgency about this from citizens across this country.
Um, since two thousand health insurance premiums have doubled and health care premiums are growing three times faster than wages. But unfortunately quality of care is going down as those costs continue to rise. So, even with, for people who have, uh, access to health care, uh, all it takes is a stroke of bad luck to become one of the nearly forty-six million uninsured or the millions who have health care and are having trouble affording it.
Today, uh, at the Department of Health and Human Services we've released fifty new reports on the health care status quo in every state around the country. The new reports are available on our web site, www.healthreform.gov. And they pretty clearly outline the challenges that we have. Um, the reports include statistics on the percentage of residents in each state without insurance, the increase in the costs of premiums, and the overall quality for health care in each state. And they use some of the most current data available.
Uh, unfortunately the reports are a clear demonstration that there are problems with health care in every state. Whether they're rural, urban, East coast, West coast, it really doesn't matter. The health crisis impacts all of America. The additional reports out today are from our Agency for Health Research and Quality. And frankly states get a pretty mixed review for the quality of care they provide.
Uh, these are more than just numbers and facts, more than statistics on a page. They represent real people and families in states across the country who are struggling. Uh, what we know is every day in America families are being crushed by the high cost of health care that threatens their financial stability, leaves them exposed to higher premiums and deductibles, and puts them at risk for possible loss of health insurance as employers struggle to provide adequate health coverage.
So now Americans are demanding reform that protects what works and fixes what's broken. And in Congress, um, a number of members of the House and Senators from both sides of the aisle are working hard to make reform a reality. We were encouraged that just yesterday a bipartisan group of leading Senators, including the top Democrat and the top Republican on the Finance Committee, Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley, recommitted to working together on health reform this year.
So I'm confident that we are gonna get a bill passed and to the President's desk. And the statistics that we're releasing today should help to inform people about the serious challenges that we face and why we can't wait for reform to happen.
Um, again the reports are on our web site healthreform.gov. And they are a state by state look at what's going on in quality and cost. So with that I'd, I'd be willing to, um, answer some questions. I think we have about...
