[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 97 (Friday, July 22, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 22, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                  HEALTH CARE REFORM AND THE UNINSURED

  (Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, as we continue to debate the 
various health care plans floating around the Congress, we should be 
reminded that our goal in achieving health care reform is to provide 
coverage for Americans who have no insurance today. We are not here to 
continue business as usual. We are here to enact meaningful health care 
reform and its time we stopped listening to the special interests and 
started listening to our constituents.
  Yesterday, the Houston Post reported that the district I am honored 
to represent has the largest number of uninsured persons of any 
district in the State of Texas. 178,000 people in the 29th 
Congressional District are without health coverage. The size of the 
uninsured is surprising, especially since over 83 percent of these 
people are from working families. These people are not on the welfare 
rolls, they are hard working men and women who cannot get health 
benefits. Many of the businesses these people work for would like to 
offer coverage but the prices are far too high for small businesses to 
offer insurance.
  We have to enact a health care reform plan that will lower the costs 
for small businesses so that they can afford to offer coverage. And 
most importantly, we must pass a plan that ensures that everyone has 
health coverage. Universal coverage is the key to cost reductions 
through the elimination of cost shifting.
  People all over the country are waiting for this Congress to act on 
health care reform. I ask my colleagues to remember those waiting in 
the clinics for health care rather than the special interest groups 
waiting outside the doors of our offices.

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