[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 56 (Tuesday, May 7, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H2132-H2137]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1715
   SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING PUBLIC AWARENESS OF THE IMPORTANCE OF 
          HEALTH CARE EDUCATION AND HEALTH CARE COVERAGE MONTH

  Mrs. WILSON of New Mexico. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules 
and agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 271) expressing 
the sense of the Congress that public awareness and education about the 
importance of health care coverage is of the utmost priority and that a 
National Importance of Health Care Coverage Month should be established 
to promote these goals.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                            H. Con. Res. 271

       Whereas census estimates indicate that some 42 million 
     Americans are without health insurance coverage, many of whom 
     are among the most vulnerable of American citizens who can be 
     financially devastated by serious illness, disease, or 
     accident;
       Whereas studies have shown that people with health 
     insurance are healthier than those who are uninsured and 
     receive care through emergency rooms or safety net health 
     care services, because the insured are entitled to, and 
     receive, more preventive care, follow-up care, and care for 
     chronic conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure;
       Whereas over 17.3 million of the uninsured are employed, 
     but are not offered health insurance through their employers;
       Whereas such employers are small business owners who are 
     often unaware of the benefits of offering insurance, 
     including the fact that it is tax deductible, that it helps 
     to reduce employee turnover, and that it helps to reduce 
     employee sick days;
       Whereas over 16 million people, more than one-third of the 
     uninsured, are in families where at least one member of the 
     family has been offered employer based health care coverage 
     but has turned it down;
       Whereas many citizens are eligible for public assistance 
     programs such as the State Children's Health Insurance 
     Program, known as SCHIP, and the Medicaid program, but are 
     not currently enrolled due primarily to lack of outreach, 
     education, and accessible enrollment processes;
       Whereas studies have shown that many citizens and small 
     businesses are unaware of the various options they have for 
     obtaining affordable health care coverage;
       Whereas surveys have shown that many individuals who cite 
     expense as the reason for not purchasing insurance find it to 
     be affordable once they are informed of the true cost of 
     various options; and
       Whereas education about health care coverage helps 
     uninsured citizens and employers to understand the critical 
     value of health insurance as a preventive measure, as well as 
     the ways to keep their health insurance premiums manageable 
     once they have health care coverage: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
     concurring), That it is the sense of the Congress that--
       (1) a National Importance of Health Care Coverage Month 
     should be established to promote a multifaceted educational 
     effort about the importance of health care coverage, and to 
     increase awareness of the many available health care coverage 
     options, and should include efforts to inform those eligible 
     for public insurance programs of how to access those 
     programs; and
       (2) the President should issue a proclamation calling on 
     the Federal Government, States, localities, citizens, and 
     businesses of the United States to conduct appropriate 
     programs, fairs, ceremonies, and activities to promote this 
     educational effort.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Biggert). Pursuant to the rule, the 
gentlewoman from New Mexico (Mrs. Wilson) and the gentleman from Ohio 
(Mr. Brown) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from New Mexico (Mrs. Wilson).


                             General Leave

  Mrs. WILSON of New Mexico. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent 
that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and 
extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on the 
legislation now under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from New Mexico?
  There was no objection.
  Mrs. WILSON of New Mexico. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as 
I may consume.
  There are more than 40 million people in America who do not have 
health insurance who are part of the workforce, despite widespread 
private insurance plans, as well as public availability of different 
kinds of programs in health insurance. These are the same people who 
are very likely to forego services like periodic checkups and 
preventive services and immunizations for their kids. They delay going 
to get health care. And, later, these same people show up in our health 
care systems with very acute conditions requiring costly medical 
attention and conditions that may have been entirely preventable with 
early detection.
  Uninsured people are hospitalized at least 50 percent more often than 
the insured are for what are called avoidable hospital conditions, like 
pneumonia. They wait until the pneumonia gets so bad and they are so 
sick that they have to go to the emergency room when, if they went 
earlier, they could have been put on a course of antibiotics and there 
could have been treatment without hospitalization. They are also much 
more likely to be diagnosed with late-stage cancer than those with 
insurance are. People who are uninsured delay going to the doctor until 
it is too late.
  Uninsured adults are four times more likely and children five times 
more likely to use the emergency room compared with the insured. People 
who have insurance have a primary care doctor. When they get sick, they 
make an appointment, or they go to the walk-in care clinic where their 
doctor has told them to go. Those who are uninsured wait and show up in 
our Nation's emergency rooms.
  The costs for the uninsured are absorbed by the community as a whole, 
either through public programs, through our disproportionate share 
hospital program, or through increases in health insurance costs for 
those who do have insurance. So we do bear the cost as a community. 
Care is not denied to people, but it is not offered in the most 
efficient way and it is certainly not offered in the best way for those 
who lack health insurance.
  Now, I am not really big on just hortatory resolutions. That is not 
my thing. At the same time, I saw some evidence recently that really 
shocked me and that caused me to bring forward this resolution today. I 
do not like things that are just symbolic, but I do believe America 
needs an education campaign to inform small businesses, even some 
medium- and large-sized businesses, employees, and parents about how to 
get health insurance.
  There was a recent study by the Employees Benefit Research Institute 
that said that 57 percent of small businesses did not know that health 
insurance is tax-deductible. In other words, if a small business owner, 
and these businesses employ most of the people in this country, if they 
do not know that they can provide health insurance to their employees 
and the cost of that is an expense, a legitimate business expense, they 
are going to be less likely to look for a plan to be able to offer to 
their employees. So it told me that education is necessary, and that 
maybe the Congress could do something about it and make insurance more 
affordable and more available to employees in this country.
  Over one-third of the uninsured are in families where coverage is 
offered by an employer and they declined the insurance. Sometimes it is 
because the premiums or the co-pays are too high,

[[Page H2133]]

but sometimes education can overcome that reluctance to sign up for 
health insurance because it mitigates the risks and makes health 
coverage or health care more available for people.
  There are many parents who are eligible, whose children are eligible, 
for what is called the State Children's Health Insurance Program that 
was passed by the Congress in 1997, but they do not know that they are 
eligible. As a result, we have 8 million children in this country who 
are eligible for health insurance who are not enrolled in that program, 
and that program is low-cost or no cost to the parents. We need to get 
the word out to parents that health insurance is available to them 
through a publicly supported program for their children so that their 
children can get the preventive care that they need.
  We need to educate small business leaders. We need to educate the 
workforce. We need to educate parents so that we can increase the 
access to health care and increase the number of people who are insured 
in this country. I believe that Congress can play a role in educating 
our constituents.
  We need to ensure that small businesses understand that there is a 
way to provide health insurance and deduct the cost from the cost of 
doing business. We need to educate them on how to set up cafeteria 
plans, which can be a nightmare for small businesses, but there are 
easy programs to do that. We need to get the information out there so 
that employees can set up plans to be able to use pretax dollars to pay 
for health costs, which is entirely allowable under the Federal Tax 
Code.
  Children and the uninsured individuals need to find out about the 
importance of health care coverage and the existing tax benefits and 
public and private programs that are available for parents that they 
are eligible for and should go ahead and register for.
  This resolution that we are discussing, and I hope will pass today, 
will call on the President to designate October as National Importance 
of Health Care Coverage Month, and increase awareness about the 
importance of health coverage and the ways to obtain it.
  Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Madam Speaker, I share the view of the gentlewoman from New Mexico 
(Mrs. Wilson) that health insurance is important, that education and 
outreach are also important. But if I poll people in my district who 
are uninsured, I am pretty sure they would say it is actually Members 
of Congress who need education. The uninsured in my district know that 
going without health insurance is a bad idea. Most of them did not 
choose that; it is either not available or it is too expensive. Small 
business knows that sponsoring health insurance for their employees is 
a good idea. They still cannot afford it.
  The resolution of the gentlewoman from New Mexico says that public 
awareness and education about the importance of health insurance 
coverage is of the utmost importance. Our utmost priority should be to 
make sure Americans actually have access to health coverage. Instead, 
we sit idle in this body as existing health coverage erodes in the 
United States.
  State Medicaid programs throughout the country are in the red. 
Several States seriously are considering scaling back Medicaid 
programs. Congress has looked at legislation to provide temporary 
assistance to States so they can maintain their Medicaid programs. 
Congress has looked at proposals to help unemployed workers weather the 
economic downturn without losing their health coverage. Congress has 
looked at plans to prevent a dip in funding for the Children's Health 
Insurance Program that will leave 300,000 children without coverage. 
But have we taken action on any of these fronts? No.
  It is a math question: If you drain the budget surplus into tax cuts 
for the wealthiest people in the country and tax cuts for Enron and IBM 
and General Motors, the dollars simply are not there to help sustain 
existing health coverage, much less expand access. So we pass 
resolutions and do nothing because we do not have the money to do it.
  Promoting outreach to inform people about Medicare and the Children's 
Health Insurance Program, but looking the other way as Medicaid and 
SCHIP programs throughout this country are put on the chopping block, 
rings a bit hollow under these circumstances. And by the way, Medicaid 
and SCHIP insure 1 out of 5 children in this country. If we care about 
health insurance, we should care less about resolutions like this but 
more about these programs.
  When we consider that this Congress has done nothing, nothing to 
expand or even to preserve access to health insurance, nothing unless 
you count these empty resolutions, these resolutions say this to the 
public: Congress cares deeply about your situation. We really do. We 
are not going to lift a finger to help you, but drop us a line and let 
us know how things turn out, because we are really interested.
  The House Republican prescription drug and Medicare privatization 
plan sends the same message. It says to seniors: We really do care. We 
really do. But, unfortunately, it is not you whom we care about. We are 
offering up a prescription drug plan, Republicans tell us, that will 
not protect you from high drug cost; the truth is it is not even 
workable, because we prioritized tax cuts for the richest Americans and 
the largest corporations ahead of you and now we cannot afford to add 
even a decent drug benefit to Medicare.
  That is why we saw the histrionics last week from Republican leaders 
proposing some phony kind of prescription drug benefit. I am sure many 
of the same Members of Congress who recently eliminated another $374 
billion from the Federal budget by making permanent the tax cuts that 
go overwhelmingly to the richest Americans, dollars that could have 
been used to find a real solution to prescription drug needs, dollars 
that could have been used to expand or at least preserve access to 
health insurance, I am sure many of those same Members who voted to 
make the tax cut permanent, who made a tax cut permanent so we cannot 
afford prescription drug coverage, we cannot afford access for children 
to health care, those same Members that voted to make that tax cut 
permanent will also vote today to promote National Importance of Health 
Care Month. They might send out a news release, they might go home and 
brag about how they are interested in expanding health care to children 
and taking care of a prescription drug benefit. But on behalf of the 
millions of uninsured, the millions of underinsured, the millions who 
do not have prescription drug benefits, and the millions of Americans 
that the House Republican leadership leaves in the dust when you voted 
for tax cuts, I would like to say, thanks for nothing.
  Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mrs. WILSON of New Mexico. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as 
I may consume.
  I thank the gentleman from Ohio for his remarks. We have worked 
together on a variety of things related to health care, and on this one 
we may agree on the resolution but we disagree on some facts, and I 
think they are important facts.
  The gentleman from Ohio and I serve on the same committee that 
extended the SCHIP program last year and allowed States to retain the 
funds in the SCHIP program longer than they were authorized without 
returning them to the Federal Government and having them redistributed. 
I think that was the right thing to do. It certainly was right for my 
State of New Mexico.
  This House passed three times the extension of health care benefits 
to the unemployed who are out of work through no fault of their own and 
the extension of unemployment benefits to cover those people.
  This House has passed and now we are in conference with the Senate on 
a patient's bill of rights. And in that patient's bill of rights we did 
some other things for health care, including making self-employed 
health care coverage fully deductible. If you work for IBM, IBM can 
take the full cost of that premium and write it off as an expense for a 
business. But if you are self-employed, under the current tax system 
you cannot. That is not right. This country thrives on small business. 
And people who start up their own companies and who are self-employed 
should be able to fully deduct their health care costs.
  That bill also included the association health plans provision, to 
extend

[[Page H2134]]

health care coverage and get more people insurance.
  The gentleman and I also work on the committee that is getting down 
to brass tacks now to implement the budget resolution that this House 
passed that sets aside $350 billion over the next 10 years to add a 
prescription drug benefit to Medicare. If we were starting out today 
with a clean sheet of paper for health care for senior citizens, no one 
in their right mind would exclude prescription drugs. But back in 1965, 
medicine was only 1 percent of the cost of health care. Now it is up to 
15 percent of the cost of health care. People should not have to be 
forced to choose between buying medicine and buying groceries, but that 
is the situation a lot of the seniors in my district are in today. And 
that is why we are going to pass a bill through this House that adds a 
prescription drug benefit to Medicare.
  My colleague and I disagree also about the importance of tax relief 
last summer. And I think the big thing for me is this: The Council on 
Economic Advisers about 3 months ago came out with a report on the 
impact of that tax relief. Now, Congress does not always do things at 
the right time. We usually end up taking action long after the problem 
is over.

                              {time}  1730

  But on the tax bill we got it right. It was just in the nick of time, 
and there are 800,000 Americans today who have jobs because we passed 
tax relief at the right time to get this economy back to growing jobs 
and back to solid economic growth. That is what the tax relief bill 
did. It got our economy back and growing.
  The gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) and I share a concern about the 
uninsured. I think education is a piece of it. It is not a cure-all. We 
have a lot of other work to do, but I am proud of this House that we 
have done so much work in this session of Congress.
  Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman 
from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone), who understands, unlike the Republican 
leadership, that we must do something about prescription drug prices.
  Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, the biggest problem with lack of coverage 
today is prescription drugs. As the gentleman from Ohio mentioned, the 
Republican leadership is not doing anything about the cost. The biggest 
concern that my constituents tell me is that they cannot afford the 
price of drugs. What is the Republican leadership doing about it? 
Absolutely nothing. Their proposal to address the prescription drug 
issue is simply a sham.
  First of all, it is not under Medicare. Medicare needs to be expanded 
so that everyone who is eligible for Medicare gets a prescription drug 
benefit guaranteed, and they know what the benefit is. What the 
Republican leadership is saying is we are going to send some money out 
to private insurance companies or to the States, and we hope that 
Americans can take this voucher, and if they are low income, they can 
find some insurance company to give a drugs-only policy to cover 
prescription drugs. They are assuming that the only people that are 
going to be able to take advantage of it are very low-income people, 
about 6 percent of the senior population. And even those will not be 
able to take advantage because the insurance companies have said they 
will not sell these prescription drug medicine-only policies.
  Madam Speaker, what we need is to expand Medicare for all seniors so 
they all get a prescription drug benefit, and it has to be a generous 
benefit. It has to say if someone pays so much per month as a premium, 
like one does with their doctor bills, they get a guarantee from the 
Federal Government that it is going to bring their cost down so they 
can pay for their drugs. That is not what the Republicans are offering.
  They are doing another sham, like they did 2 years ago, where they 
are trying to throw some money out there and give the impression that 
somebody is going to get a prescription drug benefit. It is a joke on 
the American people. But going back to the main thing is cost. Everyone 
tells me they cannot afford to pay for the drugs.
  What the Democrats are saying is not only are we going to give a 
generous benefit guaranteed under Medicare, but we are going to have 
the Secretary make sure that the costs come down.
  Mrs. WILSON of New Mexico. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as 
I may consume.
  Madam Speaker, this a resolution that we are debating about the 
importance of health care coverage for the uninsured.
  The gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) mentioned where we are 
going on prescription drug coverage, and it is amazing to me. I serve 
on the Leadership Task Force on Prescription Drugs, and the gentleman 
from Ohio (Mr. Brown) and I serve on the Subcommittee on Health that is 
working on the bill. We have set aside $350 billion over the next 10 
years to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare. We are trying to 
work out the details of that plan and that option.
  First of all, it has to be part of Medicare. Everyone agrees on that. 
It has to be part of the Medicare program. And everyone who is eligible 
for Medicare has to have some access to that coverage.
  I think it has to be voluntary so Americans who have coverage from an 
employer, or veterans and get it through the VA, they should not be 
forced to participate. It has to be affordable. That means we have to 
make sure that those who are low income or those with high drug costs 
get the most help from the Federal Government. A $350 billion 
commitment over 10 years is a significant contribution by the Federal 
Government to provide that coverage.
  I think it also needs to provide choices. What the gentleman from New 
Jersey (Mr. Pallone) needs for his constituents in New Jersey may not 
be the same thing that my constituents need, or that we need in rural 
places in New Mexico. I like to get my medicine downstairs at the 
pharmacy in the building where I see my doctor. Rural Americans may 
want a mail order plan. Americans should have options, and those are 
some of the principles we are working from.
  We are determined to bring to the floor a prescription drug benefit 
plan added to Medicare before the Memorial Day recess. In the last 
Congress, the House passed a bill to do so. The Senate did not. We are 
determined to be persistent and keep going because the people in my 
district need it, just as the constituents of the gentleman from New 
Jersey (Mr. Pallone) do. On that, we can agree.
  Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman 
from California (Mr. George Miller).
  (Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California asked and was given permission to 
revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the 
opening statement of the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown). The American 
people appreciate the importance of health care. Families struggle 
every day with whether or not coverage is accessible to them. There was 
no great glee in the land when they killed the Clinton health care 
plan. We had 38 million uninsured people, and we now have 42 million 
uninsured people. In spite of the recitation that the gentlewoman from 
New Mexico (Mrs. Wilson) cites, we still have 42 million people who are 
uninsured.
  Why? Because we have created a hodgepodge of programs where they have 
to be a detective to figure out whether or not they are eligible. They 
move and lose programs, their children move and lose programs, whether 
they are employed, not employed, whether in school, out of school, 
whether on or off of Medicaid, all of these programs. They spend all of 
their time worrying about eligibility, and they are covered for very 
little period of time.
  The gentlewoman has also suggested that this is part of a grander 
plan to bring a $350 billion prescription drug program to the floor. 
That is not it at all. $350 billion is for everything they say that 
they want to do in Medicare. The program is less than half that amount, 
which has been proven to be inadequate to provide a prescription drug 
benefit that is useful without the people on Medicare paying out 
thousands and thousands of dollars before they get any real advantage 
to the program.

[[Page H2135]]

  So the question here is not whether or not people think health care 
coverage is important or not. The question is, What is the Congress 
going to do about it? What is Congress going to do about these 42 
million Americans? What is Congress going to do about the children who 
are growing up in families where at least one person is employed, and 
in many cases both are employed, and they do not have access to health 
care? The programs that we have put in place so far, while commendable, 
still leave millions of America's children and working people without 
insurance.
  Yes, we have made it more deductible for small businesses and 
individuals; but the fact is that even small businesses and individuals 
cannot afford to provide the insurance that Americans need so 
desperately.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the 
gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen).
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I rise to speak on H. Con. Res. 271. 
Approximately 42 million people in this country are without health 
insurance. Those with no coverage are more likely to be young adults, 
poor, Hispanic, African American, rural or small business employees. As 
chairperson of the Congressional Black Caucus Health Braintrust, but 
even more so as a family physician who practiced for 21 years before 
coming to Congress, I know what not having insurance coverage does to 
families and individuals. They delay or avoid care, most likely seeking 
care through emergency rooms which cannot provide for need continuity 
or safety net services which are often underfunded, understaffed, and 
underequipped. Not being insured is the seventh leading cause of death 
in this country, resulting in 83,000 deaths annually.
  Although tonight we are focusing on insurance coverage, it is 
important to recognize that providing access to health care is more 
than providing insurance, but also insuring an adequate infrastructure 
for the uninsured or the newly insured to receive proper health care.
  Madam Speaker, we must all support educating the public on all of the 
health care coverage options available, and make an extra effort to 
link those, but education is only half the battle. We as lawmakers must 
continue to work on passing legislation that will leave no individual 
without access to quality health care.
  This includes lifting the cap on Medicaid for the offshore 
territories, providing a Medicare drug benefit, paying the doctors and 
other providers a fee that will allow us to keep our doors open, and 
passing a strong Patients' Bill of Rights. Most of all, it means 
committing to universal health care by 2004 to everybody in this 
country.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman 
from Arizona (Mr. Pastor).
  (Mr. PASTOR asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. PASTOR. Madam Speaker, first of all, I thank the gentlewoman from 
New Mexico (Mrs. Wilson) for bringing this resolution to the floor. It 
is very important that we recognize the health needs of our community. 
I would tell the gentlewoman that I agree with her that education is 
very important. One of the problems that we have found in Arizona that, 
although many children are eligible for SCHIPs, there needs to be an 
outreach program. In Arizona we have found that the State legislature 
refuses to provide those monies that would go into those programs to 
make the families aware that SCHIPs is available and that their 
children probably qualify.
  I would also agree with the gentlewoman that we need to address the 
health needs of our society. I would ask the gentlewoman to join those 
of us who believe that the 43 million people in this society, even 
though they are employed, even though they are working but are not 
covered by health insurance, maybe this Congress will see fit to 
provide a universal health care program in which all Americans would be 
entitled to quality and affordable health care.
  During our district work periods, I have been visiting senior centers 
and also going door to door. They invite me in their homes or bring the 
prescriptions to the senior centers, and show me the number of 
medications that they have to take. Many times it is three or four 
medications that they take. They explain to me that the cost of the 
prescriptions are getting so high that they have to make difficult 
choices. Many times they are not taking the prescriptions as they 
should because they want to increase the number of days that the 
medication might be available to them.
  I also, in asking them how they feel this prescription drug benefit 
ought to be covered, the majority tell me, because they are familiar 
with Medicare, they would like to see Medicare be the vehicle to 
provide the prescription drug benefit. To them choice is not as 
important; to them the availability of the drugs, the cost of the drugs 
being lesser so they could afford them, and in a system that they are 
aware of and know how it works, they would prefer that. I thank the 
gentlewoman for agreeing that maybe the prescription drug benefit 
should be a Medicare program.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman 
from Illinois (Mr. Davis).
  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
yielding me this time.
  Madam Speaker, I share comments with all who have spoken for the need 
of health education and awareness. However, I do not agree that 
piecemeal in health care will ever get us to the point that we have the 
coverage that is necessary. Yes, we need a prescription drug program. I 
agree with that. Yes, the children's health program is helping. But in 
reality what we really need is universal coverage for each and every 
American citizen. We need a health system where everybody is in, and 
nobody is out.

                              {time}  1745

  We need a system that covers each and every person from the cradle to 
the grave. While we move towards that, piece by piece, ultimately we 
will come to the realization that we must have a system, everybody in, 
nobody out.
  Mrs. WILSON of New Mexico. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my 
time.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).
  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to revise 
and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
his kindness in yielding me this time and I do appreciate the work he 
has done on ensuring that all Americans can have good health care. I 
also thank the gentlewoman from New Mexico for giving us the 
opportunity to debate this very important issue on the floor of the 
House and for the support of such legislation and the bringing forward 
of such legislation.
  It should be noted that we have an estimated 42 million Americans who 
are without health coverage. There are over 17 million Americans who 
are employed but lack health coverage through their employer. Due to 
the high cost of health care coverage, over 16 million Americans are in 
families where at least one member of the family has been offered 
employer-based health insurance but was forced to turn it down because 
of the high cost of that health insurance. This happens every day.
  I note that the resolution specifically speaks to outreach and 
education. It also speaks to trying to impress upon small businesses 
the value of having health insurance to cut down on sick days of its 
employees and to encourage them to stay longer. It also speaks to the 
insurance provided by Medicaid for the State Children's Health 
Insurance Program. But I think we need to go further. I think we need 
to have a list of what we do not have and how Congress has failed the 
American public.
  We do not have a prescription drug benefit for seniors through 
Medicare. We have not passed a Patients' Bill of Rights, therefore, 
giving access to individuals for good health care across the country. 
We have large numbers of children that are uninsured who have not yet 
had access to the Children's Health Insurance Program that was passed 
at least 4 years ago or more in the 1997 Budget Act. We have not done 
our job.
  Though we can pass a resolution such as this that really has a good 
purpose, it is not a good result. We must work

[[Page H2136]]

together as Republicans and Democrats to ensure that those who we 
represent can have access to good health insurance and health coverage. 
I believe that the Democrats have a very valid and viable plan; that 
is, to pass a real Patients' Bill of Rights, a drug benefit for our 
seniors, and to ensure that we have the kind of funding to cover our 
children who are uninsured.
  I want to voice my support for health care coverage for Americans who 
are uninsured. An estimated 42 million Americans are without health 
coverage. There are over 17 million Americans who are employed, but 
lack health coverage through their employer. Due to the high cost of 
health care coverage over 16 million Americans are in families where at 
least one member of the family has been offered employer-based health 
insurance, but was forced to turn it down because of the high cost.
  This resolution helps to express the sense that I have that the 
Congress should establish and promote an educational effort about the 
importance of health care coverage, as well as increase awareness of 
the many affordable health care coverage options. This should include 
efforts to inform people who are eligible for public insurance programs 
about how they can obtain coverage under these programs.
  The Tauzin-Bilirakis bill will go far in creating equity in health 
care coverage for all Americans. I believe that the President should 
issue a proclamation calling for the federal government, states, 
localities, citizens and businesses to conduct appropriate programs, 
fairs and activities to promote this educational effort.
  However at the same time, it is imperative that the Congress doesn't 
just pass resolutions. We must act now to pass a prescription drug 
benefit for seniors, to fund children's health coverage, immunization 
and a real patient bill of rights--the Republican Congress has failed 
in these efforts.
  Mrs. WILSON of New Mexico. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as 
I may consume. I thank my colleague from Texas for coming down and 
talking about this problem because it is an important one, but I would 
note that the House has passed a Patients' Bill of Rights and we also 
passed one the previous Congress. My State of New Mexico has a 
Patients' Bill of Rights at the State level. I have supported the 
Patients' Bill of Rights here in the House and I hope we are able to 
resolve the differences with the Senate and have a Federal Patients' 
Bill of Rights as well as a prescription drug benefit.
  Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 additional minute to the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
yielding me this time. In fact, I would just comment that I appreciate 
that the House has passed a Patients' Bill of Rights. My point was that 
we in Congress collectively have failed in the fact that the bill is 
not ready to be signed. It is not law.
  I guess the other point, as I reclaim my time, is to simply say to 
the House that, of course, the difficulty in the legislation was what 
was pulled out of it. It concerns me because it was a legislative 
initiative that first started that had all of the physicians in support 
of the baseline bill that provided open access to emergency rooms and 
holding HMOs responsible. I do not think we are at that point yet.
  But I will say to the gentlewoman, yes, the House has passed 
legislation; I just believe we should move expeditiously through the 
normal processes so that we can get a bill that we all can be 
respectful of but, most importantly, that the American people can be 
served by to the President's desk.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  There is a frustration in this House of Representatives as we have 
seen from this line of speakers, probably 10 people on the Democratic 
side, who care enough to show up on the House floor and talk about 
health care issues. There is a frustration that we have not passed a 
Patients' Bill of Rights. Granted the House passed it, but the fact is 
there is no Patients' Bill of Rights signed into law. There is a 
frustration that this House has not taken up the Medicare buy-in bill, 
a voluntary program, revenue neutral, that would allow 55- to 64-year-
olds who have lost their health insurance through no fault of their own 
to go into the Medicare program.
  There is a frustration in this House that we have done nothing except 
talk about a prescription drug benefit, nothing about a prescription 
drug benefit inside Medicare, nothing about prescription drug prices as 
the drug companies are the most profitable industry in America, enjoy 
the lowest tax rate in America, where American taxpayers pay half of 
the cost of research and development and the drug companies turn around 
and reward Americans by charging us more than people anywhere else on 
Earth.
  There is a frustration in this House that we have not moved on 
children's health issues, that we simply have failed to reduce the 
number of children who lack health insurance.
  But there is a bigger frustration from our constituents, a 
frustration embodied in the fact that every couple of months 50 people 
join me on a bus from my district from northeast Ohio to go to Canada 
to buy drugs at one-half or one-third or one-fourth the cost of 
prescription drugs in local drugstores because the drug companies 
simply charge Americans, not the pharmacies, but the drug companies 
simply charge Americans more than anywhere else. There is a bigger 
frustration from our constituents who have to cut their prescriptions, 
that have to cut the drugs that they are taking in half or take them 
every other day or do some other creative kind of ingestion of their 
drugs because it is simply that they are prescription drugs, simply 
because they want their prescription to last longer.
  There is a frustration among our constituents who watch their 
children get ear infections and just wait and wait and wait because 
they do not have health care coverage, then they take them to the 
emergency room and they might lose their hearing.
  There is a frustration among our constituents who have to choose to 
take their drugs instead of providing enough food or turning their heat 
up warm enough in the winter.
  There is that frustration aimed at this Congress because we simply 
are not doing anything on the major issues. We are not taking care of 
children without health insurance, we are not taking care of 
prescription drug coverage for seniors, we are not taking care of 
people who are 55 or 58 or 60 years old whose factories closed, whether 
they are steelworkers or autoworkers or small business people or shop 
owners, who simply cannot afford their prescriptions and cannot afford 
their health care. That is the frustration.
  This Congress passes a resolution, we will all say yes when you call 
this vote and we will all support it, but the fact is this Congress 
again on Tuesday afternoon comes in, people fly in from all over the 
country and we debate and vote on resolutions like this but we do not 
do anything on prescription drug coverage, we do not do anything on 
health insurance, we do not do anything on children's health, we do not 
do anything on any of these issues that matter to the American people.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mrs. WILSON of New Mexico. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as 
I may consume. My colleague from Ohio and I share the same frustration. 
In some ways I think we have similar kinds of personalities. We are 
get-the-job-done kind of people. We came here to do things for the 
people we care about in our communities and we want to get it done. It 
is sometimes frustrating to do this job because it requires a national 
consensus, which we have obtained here in the House several times. But 
then we have to negotiate with the Senate. We have to get the President 
on board and do all of these things.
  What amazes me is how much we have achieved over the last 5 years, 
even though challenges remain. In 1997, this Congress passed landmark 
legislation to extend health care coverage for children in partnership 
with States. Then my colleague from Ohio and I voted to extend that so 
that States could keep that additional funding. The frustration for me 
is that there are 8 million American children who are eligible for 
SCHIP whose parents have not enrolled them and they are not getting 
care. We have an education gap. That is what we are trying to address 
and remedy here today.
  We have passed a Patients' Bill of Rights. I hope that that Patients' 
Bill of Rights is ultimately signed into law.

[[Page H2137]]

I have voted for it. We have passed a budget to set aside $350 billion 
to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare and to modernize 
Medicare. There is a company in my district called Express Scripts. 
They are a mail order pharmacy. They send out tens of thousands of 
prescriptions to people. But because Medicare is not modernized, there 
is a difference between if you have regular health insurance or if you 
are on Medicare. If you have regular health insurance, they get in the 
order for the medicine, they verify your eligibility on-line and they 
mail out the medicine that day. But if you are on Medicare, because 
Medicare is still back in the 1960s as a health plan, it takes 2 weeks 
to verify your eligibility with the Federal Government for Medicare. 
That is a senior who is out there waiting for their medicine because 
Medicare is not a modern program.
  We have to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare. We have to 
modernize Medicare. I am committed to working with my colleague from 
Ohio and others to do so. But we also have to narrow the education gap, 
to educate parents about what is available under Medicaid and under 
SCHIP and under employer-sponsored plans. Fifty-seven percent of small 
businesses in this country do not know that providing health care 
insurance for their employees is tax deductible. They do not know they 
can put it down as an expense. We need to make those changes, and we 
need to make sure that people know what the laws currently are so that 
we have fewer people uninsured, because uninsured people end up sicker 
than the rest of us. They end up in hospital emergency rooms more than 
people who have insurance. They are much more likely to be diagnosed 
with late stage cancers that are incurable. They end up getting their 
health care from emergency rooms rather than primary care physicians. 
They do not get annual pap smears and mammograms. They do not get 
immunizations for their children. We need to change the system so that 
the uninsured have the information and the access to insurance.
  That is why I brought this resolution forward tonight. I ask for my 
colleagues' support.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Biggert). The question is on the motion 
offered by the gentlewoman from New Mexico (Mrs. Wilson) that the House 
suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution, H. Con. Res. 
271.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds of 
those present have voted in the affirmative.
  Mrs. WILSON of New Mexico. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas 
and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be 
postponed.

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