The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) issued the following statement today on passage of comprehensive health care reform and accompanying reconciliation legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives:
"We continue to believe that comprehensive health care reform will benefit patients and the future of America. That's why we have been involved in this important public policy debate for more than a year and why we support action by the House to approve the Senate-passed bill along with the amendments found in the reconciliation legislation.
"The existing barriers to quality health care simply are not acceptable. Today's important and historic vote in the House will help to expand health care coverage and services to tens of millions of Americans who are uninsured and often forced to forego needed medical treatments.
"Our commitment to help pay for health care reform will require all of our companies to make some difficult choices moving forward – on top of already losing more than 150,000 jobs since 2007 because of the recession and other economic factors.