[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 86 (Friday, June 30, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1170]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     THE FAMILY HEALTH TAX CUT ACT

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                             HON. RON PAUL

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 29, 2000

  Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, today I attempted to help working Americans 
provide for their children's health care needs by introducing the 
Family Health Tax Cut Act. The Family Health Tax Cut Act provides 
parents with a tax credit of up to $500 for health care expenses of 
dependent children. Parents caring for a child with a disability, 
terminal disease, cancer, or any other health condition requiring 
specialized care would receive a tax credit of up to $3,000 to help 
cover their child's health care expenses. The tax credit would be 
available to all citizens regardless of whether or not they itemize 
their deductions.
  The tax credits provided in this bill will be especially helpful to 
those Americans whose employers cannot afford to provide their 
employees health insurance. These workers must struggle to meet the 
medical bills of themselves and their families. This burden is 
especially heavy on parents whose children have a medical condition, 
such as cancer or a physical disability, which requires long-term or 
specialized health care.
  As an OB-GYN who has had the privilege of delivering more than four 
thousand babies, I know how important it is that parents have the 
resources to provide adequate health care for their children. The 
inability of many working Americans to provide health care for their 
children is rooted in one of the great inequities of the tax code: 
Congress' failure to allow individuals the same ability to deduct 
health care costs that it grants to businesses. As a direct result of 
Congress' refusal to provide individuals with health care related tax 
credits, parents whose employers do not provide health insurance have 
to struggle to provide health care for their children. Many of these 
parents work in low-income jobs; oftentimes their only recourse to 
health care is the local emergency room.
  Sometimes parents are forced to delay seeking care for their children 
until minor health concerns that could have been easily treated become 
serious problems requiring expensive treatment! If these parents had 
access to the type of tax credits provided in the Family Health Tax Cut 
Act they would be better able to provide care for their children and 
our nation's already overcrowded emergency room facilities would be 
relieved of the burden of having to provide routine care for people who 
otherwise cannot afford any other alternative.
  According to research on the effects of this bill done by my staff 
and legislative counsel, the benefit of these tax credits would begin 
to be felt by joint filers with incomes slightly above 18,000 dollars a 
year or single income filers with incomes slightly above 15,000 dollars 
per year. Clearly this bill will be of the most benefit to low-income 
Americans balancing the demands of taxation with the needs of their 
children.
  Under the Family Health Tax Cut Act, a struggle single mother with an 
asthmatic child would at last be able to provide for her child's needs; 
while a working-class family will not have to worry about how they will 
pay the bills if one of their children requires lengthy hospitalization 
or some other form of specialized care.
  Mr. Speaker, this Congress has a moral responsibility to provide low-
income parents struggling to care for a sick child tax relief in order 
to help them better meet their child's medical expenses. I would ask 
any of my colleagues who would say that we cannot enact the Family Tax 
Cut Act because it would cause the government to lose too much revenue, 
who is more deserving of this money, Congress or the working-class 
parents of a sick child?
  The Family Health Tax Cut Act takes a major step toward helping 
working Americans meet their health care needs by providing them with 
generous health care related tax cuts and tax credits. I urge my 
colleagues to support the pro-family, pro-health care tax cuts 
contained in the Family Health Tax Cut Act.

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