[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 32 (Thursday, March 13, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H954]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




[[Page H954]]



ONE OUT OF SEVEN CHILDREN IN UNITED STATES DO NOT HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE

  (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, 2 years ago the President of the United 
States said he wanted to give all Americans health care that could 
never be taken away, affordable health care that could never be taken 
away.
  Now Members of the then minority and now majority take great pride in 
saying they stopped the President from advancing that particular change 
in our public policy. The result has been that more and more people are 
without health insurance in this country.
  Now the article in today's Washington Post, page 3, says that one out 
of seven children in this country do not have insurance. Even more 
damming than that figure is that 9 out of 10 of those children live in 
a family where one adult works. These are people who are doing what the 
American system says we should do: We should work, we should get a job, 
we should try and take care of our families, but they do not have jobs 
where they get health care benefits.
  Now we have waited for 2 years for the Republicans to offer any 
proposal, and there is none, and there is no budget that deals with it 
now.

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