For more than six months, Congress has been focused on a seminal issue: COVID-19. The healthcare crisis has affected every state, industry and person in some way.

Congress should take steps now to make permanent the extraordinary progress made on telehealth, keep vaccine manufacturing on our shores and maintain our stockpiles of vital equipment.

After decades of neglect, our healthcare system cannot conjure epidemiologists or contact tracers from thin air to address a pandemic.

Americans are blindfolded when it comes to healthcare prices only to receive medical bills laden with confusing codes and outrageous charges weeks or months after treatment.

We see disparities in access to health insurance coverage and quality healthcare providers, and implicit biases in our healthcare system that have endured for generations.

As many high-risk Americans try to minimize their exposure to the coronavirus by limiting in-person medical appointments, telehealth is playing an increasingly important role in our healthcare system.

Even amid a pandemic that has made access to healthcare more important than ever, President Donald Trump and Republican state attorneys general are moving forward with their lawsuit to strike down the Affordable Care Act in its entirety.

Providing healthcare for free to everyone who needs it during a public health emergency is not a radical idea. If every major country on the planet can guarantee healthcare to all, please do not tell me the U.S. cannot do the same.

For too long, the U.S. has relied on countries like China to produce personal protective equipment and critical pharmaceuticals. This has to end.

COVID-19 is a key reason for the leap into technology-supported healthcare. But we must balance the safety and security of the doctor-patient relationship with the ability to easily access your own health records.

We can’t ignore the need to do a better job of providing Americans with access to high-quality healthcare that keeps our citizens healthy and in control. It’s time for a modern approach to personalized healthcare.

Democrats believe every single person in this country should have quality, affordable health coverage. We just have a few different ideas on how to get there.

The past several months have been filled with devastation and despair, but they have also highlighted the resilience and strength of our communities.

The allocation and distribution plan must take a public health approach, with the goals of rapidly ending the pandemic and saving the most lives.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” The wisdom of his words has been laid bare in the U.S. over the last several months.

Every day counts during this pandemic, and the goal of our oversight work has been to study every aspect of it and determine what’s needed to save lives, resources and time.