Pelosi, Governors' Remarks Before Meeting on H...( WASHINGTON June 24 -- Speaker Nancy...),Health

WASHINGTON, June 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a brief a press availability this morning with Governors Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Jim Douglas of Vermont, and Chris Gregoire of Washington before their meeting in the Capitol to discuss health care reform. Below are their remarks:

Speaker Pelosi. It's really an honor indeed to welcome three very distinguished governors to The Speaker's Office - Governor Rounds of South Dakota, Governor Douglas of Vermont, and Governor Gregoire of Washington state.

We have worked together before on the stimulus and the recovery package at the beginning of this year. Over time, Governor Douglas and I have worked together on the State Children's Health Insurance Program, and today we're going to be talking about how we move forward on comprehensive, quality, affordable, accessible health care for all Americans.

Governors' views are very important to us as we go forward with the legislation, so I am very honored to welcome them to the office and look forward to hearing what they have to say as we move forward. Governor Douglas.

Governor Douglas. Well thank you, Madam Speaker, for this opportunity to chat about this issue that is of extreme importance to the American people.

Health care continues to be an increasing percentage of our gross domestic product. It's increasingly a high percentage of the state budgets in all the states, with which my colleagues and I are wrestling. And it's important that we establish some meaningful health care reform so that we can improve the health of our population, control cost, and have the best quality outcomes from the health care system for the American people.

I think the focus on cost containment is key because health care costs continue to rise at multiples of inflation. It's important that
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