AARP, AMA, American Cancer Society, Consumers Union Endorse House Health Care Reform

House Democrats received some good news in the form of a string of high-profile endorsements for H.R. 3962, the “Affordable Health Care for America Act.” The AMA, AARP, American Cancer Society, and Consumers Union (non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports) have all endorsed the bill. The endorsements should help ensure that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be able to whip the votes to pass the bill on Saturday.

The strong endorsements should also help strengthen the House Democrats' hand when their bill is eventually merged with the Senate bill in conference. Consumers Union even directly states that they hope their endorsement will discourage efforts to water down the House bill to in conference:

In endorsing the bill, we stress the need to ensure that affordability is maintained--or even improved--in the Conference process so every American can truly afford health insurance, and that in the future overall costs be better controlled and quality increased through improvements in the health-care delivery system.