[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 107 (Friday, August 5, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 5, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                        HEALTH CARE NEEDS ACTION

                                 ______


                         HON. EARL F. HILLIARD

                               of alabama

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, August 5, 1994

  Mr. HILLIARD. Mr. Speaker, I rise to address the crucial matter of 
national health care reform. The American people are waiting for our 
action.
  There is no one so low in our Nation that he or she doesn't deserve 
the best health care that can be achieved. There is no one so poor or 
so evil, that he or she doesn't deserve to be healthy. There are people 
whose productivity as workers is less than it should be, due to 
preventable medical problems, whether physical or mental. There are 
people who are criminals who would not be criminals if they could get 
the treatment they need. There are people who are addicted to alcohol 
or to other drugs, legal or illegal, who can become free, if there is 
health care for all. There are people who limp through life who will be 
able to dance if there is affordable health care for them in this 
Nation. There are families which will remain whole if there is health 
care for all.
  The only way to achieve a healthy Nation is through universal health 
care--91 percent of the American people is not enough--95 percent or 97 
percent is not enough. As long as any American is not covered, we are 
all less. As long as any American is not healthy, our Nation is not 
healthy. As long as one American goes without treatment, every American 
suffers. This is one Nation, one people. I firmly believe that if 
Abraham Lincoln were standing here tonight, he would call for health 
care ``of the people, for the people, by the people''.
  Health care ``of the people'' means that it comes from us all as a 
Nation, as a right, as one of the great blessings that come with being 
an American.
  Health care ``for the people'' means that it must be for all, and 
designed for the health of the people, not the wealth of the elite.
  Health care ``by the people'' mean that we must pay for it as a 
people, not leaving it up to the weakest to stand aside, less than a 
full American, broken, sick, poor, afflicted.
  In the seventh district of Alabama live some of the poorest and most 
down-trodden of Americans. Whether in the inner city of Birmingham, or 
on the worn-out farms of the black belt, they are also some of the best 
people of this Nation. These people, many of whom receive no medical 
care, or inferior and inadequate medical care, are the very people who 
brought freedom to this Nation with the civil rights movement. Many of 
the great victories of the civil rights movement came in my district. 
These people, with all their afflictions from poverty, from 
discrimination, from poor education, and from inadequate access to 
health care, are a living monument to freedom for the entire world. In 
my district, the words of ``we shall overcome'' were first sung. If 
health care is not universal, it will discriminate disproportionately 
against my people.
  Therefore, in their names, and in the names of all Americans free 
because of the heroes who make up my constituency, let us pass 
universal health care reform. If we do so, we as a Nation can sing 
together, ``we have overcome, we have all overcome.''

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