WASHINGTON, D.C. – At a Ways & Means Committee hearing Wednesday on pathways to universal health care, U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (AL-07) stressed the need for Congress to ensure universal access to affordable, quality health care insurance, an issue she called a “civil rights issue of our day.”

“I want to be very clear: I believe that in this great country that we live in, this country of tremendous wealth and benefits, no American should not have health care coverage. I believe that it is a right for every American and not just the privileged few,” Sewell said. “I do believe that health care coverage, universal health care coverage, is a civil rights issue of our day, and we have to be bold enough and brave enough to do something about it.”

Rep. Sewell has introduced a host of bills to expand access to quality, affordable health care, protect the nearly two million Alabamians with pre-existing conditions and reduce the cost of prescription drugs, including legislation to extend Medicaid coverage eligibility for the fourteen states that have yet to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including Alabama. 

According to a recent University of Alabama Birmingham study, expanding Medicaid would expand health care coverage to an estimated 346,000 Alabamians by 2023 and generate $2.7 billion in annual economic activity into the state.

Video of Rep. Sewell’s remarks is available here.