[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 164 (Thursday, November 18, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2452]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 A PROPOSAL TO GUARANTEE HEALTH INSURANCE TO EVERY AMERICAN CHILD BORN 
    IN THE NEXT CENTURY: SEEKING IDEAS AND COMMENTS ON THE PROPOSAL

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. FORTNEY PETE STARK

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 17, 1999

  Mr. STARK. Mr. Speaker, it is a national disgrace that 11.1 million 
children in the United States still do not have health insurance as we 
enter a new millennium.
  What we have done so far has not worked. Since 1996, the numbers and 
percentages of children without insurance have actually crept upward. 
They have not yet reached a statistically significant degree of 
increase, but we are moving in the wrong direction.
  The web of programs we pieced together in 1997, CHIP/Medicaid/
transitional Medicaid, are failing to get health insurance coverage to 
more children.
  We need to come back to this question, and find something that will 
work. America's children deserve health insurance.
  I have begun to develop a bill to address this problem, currently in 
a rough draft form, which is based on the idea that we need a simple 
and comprehensive solution:
  We want every child in America to have health insurance.
  Every child in America is issued a birth certificate and social 
security number at birth. Let's automatically enroll every child at 
birth into a Medicare-type program; call it ``MediKids.''
  MedKids will be both an umbrella and a safety net for all of the 
other programs insuring our children, so that no child will ever fall 
through the enrollment cracks again, much less 11.1 million children.
  Our current approach places the burden on already disadvantaged 
parents. State and local enrollment and welfare workers are unable to 
determine which families match various programs--much less process 
pages of forms and documentation in order to enroll children in health 
insurance.
  Instead, I propose we do what's right, sensible, and directly 
accomplishes the goal of health insurance for all of our children: (1) 
Enroll every child in MediKids automatically at birth; and (2) allow 
parents who do have other choices for a child's health insurance to 
attach evidence of coverage to their tax forms, thus exempting 
themselves from the premiums used to finance MediKids.
  Children are relatively inexpensive to insure, but this program will 
have a budget impact. I am developing a plan for covering the costs of 
this program. Ultimately, however we pay for it, we must make the stand 
that some things are wotrh spending money on, particularly in this time 
of unprecedented, record-breaking economic growth.
  My staff and I will be refining this bill over the holiday recess. 
For example, we will want to adjust the MediKids program to cover the 
specific services which children need. As our work progresses, we will 
be posting our drafts on our website, http://www.house.gov/stark and we 
invite everyone to visit the site and offer their input.
  We plan to introduce this bill at the start of the next Congressional 
session--the first of the new millennium. I invited all of my 
colleagues, and everyone in America who cares about the health of our 
children, to join us in developing this idea, and to co-sponsor this 
important effort to get every millennium baby off to a good start.

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