WASHINGTON, DC - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis joined healthcare workers and healthcare providers today to support making healthcare affordable for every American this year.

Reid and Solis stood with nurses, doctors, and leading healthcare providers as they prepared to deliver hospital scrub tops inscribed with hand-written messages from thousands of frontline healthcare workers.

"I know of patients 'playing doctor' with their own health. That means they will literally cut their blood pressure pills in half to stretch the medications, simply because they cannot afford them. It's the choice of putting food on the table or buying expensive medicine," wrote Jennifer Solovay, an ICU nurse from Northridge, California.

Healthcare workers and administrators launched the "Every Patient Matters" campaign through the Partnership for Quality Care to make sure that America's direct caregivers have a voice in the debate over how to provide quality, affordable care to every American.

"Health care workers like Donnetta Miller, from my home state of Nevada, see firsthand the challenges that their patients face each day, whether it is putting off going to the doctor, being forced off of their insurance unexpectedly, or facing financial difficulties because of high medical bills. As we stand on the doorstep of meaningful health insurance reform, we cannot lose our resolve and our determination. We are closer than ever to ensuring that every American has access to quality, affordable care that will be there for them when they need it most," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

"In every state, premiums have increased faster than wages, consuming a larger share of family budgets. This means that businesses have fewer resources to hire new workers, or increase the pay of the workers they have. It also means that families have less money in their pockets--at a time when times are tough for everyone," said Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis.

"We need to hold ourselves as a nation to a higher standard of care delivery. We need to cover everyone, and we need to bring down costs and improve the quality of care in the process," said George Halvorson, chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente.

"Every day, healthcare workers see how a broken system makes it harder for them to deliver quality care. We can't afford to wait to fix our healthcare. Doing the right thing now will help working Americans by giving everyone peace of mind: stable, affordable insurance that nobody can lose, even if you get sick or lose a job," said Dennis Rivera, chairman of SEIU Healthcare.

"America's hospitals understand the critical importance of improving the nation's health care system, and recognize that the time is now to make meaningful reform a reality," said Greater New York Hospital Association president Kenneth E. Raske. "We must seize this historic opportunity to make quality, affordable healthcare available to all Americans."

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