House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, and Texas Congressman Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, were in Austin this morning to tour a new teaching hospital and gather insight on the Affordable Care Act and its effect on Austin from local community leaders.
The politicians toured Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas, a teaching hospital set to open May 21 in downtown Austin. The hospital will feature 211 beds and 13 operating rooms. After the tour, Pelosi and Doggett sat down with community leaders in the healthcare, music and technology fields to discuss Dell Seton and the Affordable Care Act.
During her tour, Pelosi said she saw more emphasis placed on patient health and the value of treatment instead of seeking a high volume of procedures.
“[Dell Seton] is a model to the country, because you have coming together, a public spirit, where they have solutions to healthcare [and are] giving people access to affordable healthcare, even more so under the Affordable Care Act,” Pelosi said.
She sees the Affordable Care Act as a pillar of health and economic security for Americans, along with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, she said.
The ACA as we know it today wouldn’t exist without Pelosi’s work, Doggett said.
“Through the efforts of Leader Pelosi, [we were able to] bring together a very diverse Democratic caucus to stand up and take a risk, to do what generations had talked about doing, and that is trying to provide affordable healthcare,” Doggett said.
After 60-plus efforts by Republicans to repeal the act, Doggett said Pelosi will continue to play an important role in any new national healthcare legislation.
“Once again, we look to her leadership to bring people with very different ideas about healthcare [together],” Doggett said. “[There are] many flaws in the Affordable Care Act that need correcting. The focus has to be on strengthening the act, on correcting deficiencies, not on trying to tear it down.”
