[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]




                   SOLVE THE HEALTH INSURANCE CRISIS

  (Mr. MILLER of California asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, like so many of my other 
colleagues, I am deeply distressed that we continue to live in a 
country as wealthy as the United States of America and we continue to 
have 10 million of our children without health coverage, 1 in 7 
children in this Nation with no health insurance. Tragically, 9 out of 
10 of these children live in families with working parents, but they 
earn too little to provide health insurance, not only for themselves 
but in many instances for their children.
  There was a time 10 years ago when children were covered by 
employers, when children were the responsibility of families working. 
But today as we see a downsizing of jobs, a downsizing of benefits, a 
downsizing of hours, employers are walking away from families in terms 
of health insurance, and they are certainly walking away from the 
children in those families that need health insurance. Since we debated 
health insurance issues, a million more children in this country are 
without that health insurance.
  Mr. Speaker, we did not solve the health insurance crisis in this 
country by failing to deal with it. We owe the children of America a 
much better due.

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