U.S. Rep. Steve Kagen, who represents Wisconsin’s 8^th Congressional District, said Thursday the Senate-passed health care bill will “put patients first.”

            In a statement issued after the Senate approved the so-called Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 60-39 along strict party lines, Kagen said the bill would help move America “one step closer to meaningful health care reform.”

            Kagen, a Democrat and medical doctor from Appleton, said, “On this Christmas Eve, everyone in America is a winner.   The Senate just made history by passing life saving insurance reform legislation to begin to secure access to care for all of us. Yesterday, a woman came up to me while shopping for gifts and said all she wanted for Christmas was a health care bill that would cover her family and small business employees.  Well, the Congress was listening and responded.”

            “We are working hard to fix what is broken and improve on what we already have, at a price we can all afford to pay.  The Senate bill still leaves some work to be done, but we are making steady progress by putting patients first.”

            According to Kagen, the Senate bill, as amended, “is also fully paid for, will provide coverage to more than 94 percent of Americans, and will reduce the deficit by $132 billion over the next ten years, with additional deficit reductions in the following years.”

            With the passage of the Senate bill, the House and Senate must now merge their two bills at Conference.  Both the House and Senate must then pass the combined legislation before it would go to President Obama who must sign it to become law.