Under pressure from the Obama administration to stay on schedule, the House released all 1,018 pages of the America’s Affordable Health Choices Act. DeAnn Friedholm, Consumers Union’s health care reform campaign director, has been following it closely and released this statement today:

“This bill is a major milestone on the road to health reform.  The bill ensures that virtually every American will always have dependable, affordable, comprehensive health care. It sets in place measures to reduce health inflation and improve the quality of care.  It goes a long way toward addressing consumers’ fear of bankruptcy from high health care costs.

“We’re especially pleased that the House added a requirement for the public reporting of healthcare acquired infections. An American dies about every 5 minutes—100,000 die every year—from largely preventable hospital acquired infections. At long last, this bill offers a national response to this deadly problem, by providing public information on what each local hospital is doing to stop these unnecessary deaths. The light of publicity will enable consumers—and dedicated medical staffs—to insist on major quality reforms.”