This morning, Speaker Pelosi held her weekly press conference at the Capitol and answered a question on moving forward with health care reform:
We must pass health care reform. The problem is still there. The financial aspects of it, the cost to individuals, to their families, to small businesses, to big businesses, to all businesses, to our deficit, to our federal budget and to our economy are huge. We cannot sustain financially the current system; we, as I say, families, businesses or the federal government. So this has to take place.
The fact is also that, as long as people are discriminated against because they have a pre-existing condition or their policies are cancelled because they get sick or their procedure is denied on the way to the operating room with rescissions, as long as people go bankrupt if they have a diagnosis, we must pass this legislation. And we must take whatever time it takes to do it.
Some things we can do on the side which may not fit into a bigger plan. That doesn't mean that is a substitute for doing comprehensive. It means we will move on many fronts, any front we can. As I said to some friends yesterday in the press, we will go through the gate. If the gate is closed, we will go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we will pole vault in. If that doesn't work, we will parachute in. But we are going to get health care reform passed for the American people for their own personal health and economic security and for the important role that it will play in reducing the deficit.