[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 23 (Thursday, February 27, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H679]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       BIPARTISAN CONSENSUS ON HEALTH CARE FOR CHILDREN IS NEEDED

  (Mr. WISE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WISE. Mr. Speaker, I too today rise to urge this Congress to take 
action to make sure that the 10 million children in this country who 
are not covered by some form of health insurance get covered. Surely 
this is something on a bipartisan basis Republicans and Democrats alike 
can reach consensus and agreement on.
  Because many of the cases in West Virginia, for instance, where the 
General Accounting Office listed 40,000 uninsured children, quite 
frankly I think it is more than that, but in many cases these are the 
children of parents who play by the rules. They get up every morning, 
they drive to work, they get their kids off to school, they pay their 
taxes, they obey the laws. They do everything right, and yet the thing 
that grips their gut the most is that they do not have their children 
covered with health insurance.
  Mr. Speaker, that is something this Congress can rectify. We can 
argue about a whole lot of other things, but there are ways to do this. 
This Congress needs to make sure that the 40,000 children in West 
Virginia and the millions of others across this country and their 
working parents get their due, and that is health insurance.

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