[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 62 (Tuesday, April 29, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H3437-H3442]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HISPANIC HEALTH IMPROVEMENT ACT
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez) is recognized
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I take this hour tonight to talk about a
critical issue back home and that is the issue of access to health care
and quality care. In a Nation where we have some of the greatest
research and the greatest strides that we have made in health, we still
do not have individuals able to have access to health care.
The Hispanic Health Improvement Act is a comprehensive bill that we
have filed aimed at improving Hispanic health in the United States.
Hispanics are now the fastest-growing community and compose 13 percent
of the United States population; yet they make up 23 percent of the
total uninsured population, and nearly 37 percent of Hispanics under
the age of 64 find themselves uninsured. We need to make sure that we
address the problems of the uninsured. We need to make sure that we
address the problems of access to health care.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased tonight to also be joined by the vice
chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the gentlewoman from
California (Mrs. Napolitano). I am extremely pleased that we have this
opportunity and the gentlewoman joins me here tonight, and I want to
recognize the gentlewoman at this point in time.
Mrs. NAPOLITANO. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr.
Rodriguez). It is a pleasure to be here to speak to the issue of health
services that are lacking, sadly, in not only our own districts but
throughout the United States. I am sorry to report, Mr. Speaker, that
the Bush budget sacrifices the health of our Nation to provide tax cuts
for the wealthiest 1 percent.
The budget also fails to adequately address the problem of 41 million
who go without health insurance; nearly 25 percent of those are
uninsured children. Even 25 percent of the moderate-income families
cannot afford health insurance. And eight out of 10 uninsured Americans
are from working families of the United States. Unfortunately,
Hispanics especially fall into this category. Over 33 percent, Mr.
Speaker, of all Hispanics, 33 percent are uninsured, compared to 10
percent of non-Hispanic whites.
This Bush budget cuts funding for Medicaid coverage for children, for
low-income seniors, for people in nursing homes, and especially for the
disabled. This budget fails to provide adequate increases for the
National Institutes of Health. It cuts funds for rural health care and
cuts grants to trained doctors at so very critical children's
hospitals. The budget eliminates funding for the Centers of Excellence
program, the Health Career Opportunity program which increases the
number of minority health care providers. We need to ensure
linguistically and culturally appropriate health care by giving
minority students the opportunity to enter into a health care
profession and assist them with this education and training. By
eliminating training for diversity programs, this administration would
deny the opportunities for minorities to succeed.
The budget also sacrifices the health needs of the most vulnerable to
provide tax cuts for the wealthiest. The budget provides,
unfortunately, only 38 percent of the benefits to the wealthiest 1
percent of the Americans; that is to say, they are the ones who benefit
the most. While middle-income families would get less than one dollar
per day, with cuts in Federal aid to health care and no increased aid
to States, the budget would exacerbate the current trend of higher
State and local taxes.
Now we move into the Congressional Hispanic Caucus proposing a health
care for the uninsured and the Hispanic Health Care Improvement Act
that my colleague was just talking about. It is unfortunate that the
number of uninsured in this Nation is alarming. Too
[[Page H3438]]
many people continue to go without insurance coverage. The uninsured
represent 41 million people, 14.6 percent of our U.S. population, which
means that a quarter of all moderate-income families cannot afford
health insurance. Eight out of 10 uninsured Americans are from working
families.
Just 2 days ago I met, I formed a task force of many factors in my
area to listen to what their cries are for help from our government.
Let me tell you, Mr. Speaker, one of the main issues was unaffordable
health insurance for their workers. These are manufacturers who are the
backbone of our economy in the United States, talking to us and saying,
help, we need to address this issue which is critical to have healthy
employees have healthy families so that our employees do not miss work.
Over 33 percent of all Hispanics are uninsured compared, again, to
the 10 percent of non-Hispanic whites. The Hispanic community faces
specific hardships in accessing health care. Due to their prevalence in
low-wage jobs, many do not have access to on-the-job insurance
coverage. Combined with a level of fear and confusion that stems from
the complicated laws, many in the community are forced to fall into
safety-net programs in times of need. While these programs serve many
Hispanic families, their enrollment numbers do not equal their need. We
must find ways to provide better, more affordable coverage to more U.S.
working-class families. We need to increase coverage in enrolling
people in all Federal programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and the
State Children's Health Insurance Program. We cannot afford cuts to
these programs. There must be flexibility and incentives for the States
to increase enrollment in times of economic recession and as our
population increases. We must also ensure that our health care system
can provide linguistically and culturally appropriate health care by
giving minority students the opportunity to enter and be successful in
health care professions.
I would like to call attention to the bill which I believe is part of
the solution of covering the uninsured. This week the Congressional
Hispanic Caucus will introduce a Hispanic Health Improvement Act with
the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Solis) and members of the
Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Senator Bingaman was gracious enough to
introduce companion legislation in the Senate. This bill was first
introduced in the 106th Congress, and it offers a wide variety of
strategies for expanding health care coverage, improving access,
affordability and reducing health disparities. The legislation provides
$33 billion between fiscal years 2003 and 2010 for the expansion of the
successful State Children's Health Insurance Program, commonly known as
SCHIP, to cover uninsured, low-income, pregnant women and parents. In
addition, it provides the States the option to enroll legal immigrant
pregnant women and children in Medicaid and the SCHIP program.
The caucus considers the expansion of Medicaid and SCHIP eligibility
to be a very critical component in legislative priorities for improving
Hispanic health care. The legislation also authorizes diabetes
education, prevention, and treatment programs designed to address the
needs of Hispanics and other minorities.
Lastly, we seek to reduce health care disparities by addressing the
lack of providers who can provide, again, culturally competent and
linguistically appropriate care.
The bill also provides for increased funding for the Health Resources
and Services Administration's health professions diversity programs.
Unfortunately, the President's budget proposal for fiscal year 2003
eliminates virtually all funding for these so very important programs
for our Hispanic community.
In addition to promoting diversity, the programs support the training
of professionals in fields that are experiencing shortages. Mr.
Speaker, I have heard from other Members of Congress how important some
of their districts are now in providing access to diverse cultural
linguistic services in areas because there are Hispanics throughout the
United States, not just in the southern States. That was the case a
decade or so ago.
They are also important for promoting access to health care services
in medically underserved communities, especially rural areas and ag
areas. The caucus considers increased funding a high priority, and we
thank our Hispanic Congressional Caucus colleagues for taking the lead
in providing some of these critical health care services. Hopefully, it
will be a solution if it is accepted.
I lead on to a third component of health care and that is mental
health. We talk about it, but we do not really bring it out into the
open. It is a stigma. And we think we have the ability to do a better
job, especially when we consider the veterans from prior wars have
problems with post-traumatic syndrome and our seniors have depression
problems, and we do very little about it. We need to have it included
in medical coverage, but we also must realize that we have other
programs that will deal with addressing the issues at the time the
students are in school, whether it is a middle school or a high school.
We have started such a program in our area thanks to SAMHSA. We were
able to start a pilot project in a high school and three middle schools
to address the issue of what was found 3 years ago to be a nationwide
problem and that was Latina adolescents were the highest in the country
who had attempted suicide.
We were able to get some money to start these programs with a
nonprofit mental health clinic which has been very successful and a
very acceptable program not only to the administrators and the
teachers, but the parents who are referring students and also to the
people in the whole district. We have partnered with the community, and
we have become proactive in looking at the issues that stress brings to
our children, that drugs, that cultural difference and others have in
having an impact on our young Hispanic adolescents. We have significant
success because the community got involved and because there were
people who cared about bringing the issue to the forefront and not
worrying about whether it was going to be a stigma on the community
itself.
We geared the program towards the adolescents because they have
demonstrated a high level of need; and no youngster, whether it is
Latino, Latina, whether it is white, African American, they are all
being provided services under this program even though it is all coming
out for a significantly designated Latina adolescent program.
We recently had an on-site visit by Charles Curie, the administrator
of SAMHSA, the Federal organization that provides and oversees the
funding; and they were very pleased and are looking at the possibility
of expanding the program into other areas because it has been so
successful.
We are confident that in bringing these kinds of programs out into
Congress and sharing them with other Members that we can see that we
have need in our own backyard and that we will make this a more
important and focal issue so that we can begin to help our youngsters
who are facing stress and who, in many instances, turn to violence in
our schools.
Mr. Speaker, I thank you for listening. I thank my colleagues for the
hard work that they have done on the Hispanic Health Improvement Act
and look forward to seeing some of these programs be successful.
Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman for being
here tonight, and I want to thank the gentlewoman for her work in this
area. I know the gentlewoman has worked extremely hard.
I was extremely pleased that when the gentlewoman came in she
recognized a problem in the Latina community in terms of the young
ladies committing suicide, and she filed the legislation and took it
over, and I want to personally thank her and hopefully get some
resources in this area. Again, I want to take this opportunity to thank
the gentlewoman for being here and sharing her concerns. I know the
gentlewoman represents her district well.
{time} 1945
Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I would like to also take this
opportunity to talk a little bit about the quality of access to health
care in this Nation.
Today, I had the opportunity of joining many of my colleagues at a
rally to bring awareness to the uninsured in this Nation. There is a
real need for us
[[Page H3439]]
to come to grips with the fact that we still have not addressed the
problems of the uninsured. We still have not addressed the problems of
our seniors and prescription drug coverage. We still have not addressed
the problems regarding funding in Medicaid and Medicare, as well as the
SCHIP program.
Our States are having a great deal of difficulty, not to mention the
difficulty of our consumers and our people that are falling ill.
Unfortunately, too many Americans continue to lack health insurance.
Insuring the health of all Americans must be a priority for our Nation.
There are many myths about the uninsured and why they lack health
insurance. Many people to not realize just how many Americans are
affected by the lack of health insurance. People believe that the
uninsured are unemployed and simply choose not to purchase health
insurance. Nothing could be further from the truth. The uninsured
represent 41 million people. And in any one given year, we have, at
some time, up to 75 million in this country that are uninsured. We have
14.6 percent of our population that falls into this category. Even 25
percent of the moderate income families cannot afford health insurance.
Nearly 25 percent of all uninsured are children.
Let me just point out that if someone does not work for government,
and by that, whether it be Federal Government, State government or
local government, and if an individual does not work for a major
corporation, the bottom line is they find themselves without access to
insurance. Those working for small companies, or who work in rural
America, do not have access to health care. So there is a real need for
us to address this problem and come together.
Eight out of ten uninsured Americans are from working families. Eight
out of ten. So the majority of our people that are uninsured are those
that are working yet find themselves not poor enough to qualify for
Medicaid, yet not having enough resources to be able to address the
problems when they find themselves ill.
Hispanics especially fall into this category. Over 33 percent of all
Hispanics are uninsured compared to 10 percent of the non-Hispanic
white population. And that percentage rises to 34 percent for
nonelderly Hispanics. Hispanics rely on many of the Federal programs
that provide their only access to health care, as do millions of low
and moderate income individuals and working families without health
insurance. Over 19 percent of all Hispanics depend on Medicare for
their health care.
So the majority that are seniors are in Medicare, but there is a
large percentage of them where this is the only thing they have. Over
35 percent of all Hispanic children depend on the State Children's
Health Insurance Program that we help fund, yet our States are having
difficulty throughout the country. At one point, in Texas the State
talked about just wiping out the whole State Children's Health
Insurance Program, and that would be devastating.
These programs serve many Hispanic families and many Americans
throughout this country, but there are still far too many eligible
families that are not enrolled in these programs. For Hispanics there
are unique barriers that prevent access to quality health care. There
are levels of fear and confusion that deters many eligible Hispanic
families from enrolling in these programs. This fear stems from the
complicated laws barring legal permanent residents from access to
safety nets that taxes help support. And I am referring to legal
permanent residents. These are individuals that are here legally,
working, yet have not become citizens and they find themselves with
difficulty in terms of having access to this care.
We need to increase coverage and enrollees in all Federal programs to
provide insurance such as Medicare and Medicaid and State Children's
Health Insurance Programs. There must be flexibility and incentives for
the States to increase enrollment in times of economic recession as the
population increases. And we must also ensure that our health care
systems can provide linguistically and culturally appropriate health
care by giving minority students the opportunity to enter into the
health profession.
I would like to also call attention to the bill that was mentioned
earlier that allows for coverage of the uninsured. This week we will be
introducing the Hispanics Health Improvement Act, as has been
mentioned. The gentlewoman from California (Ms. Solis) as well as other
members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, will be introducing the
legislation, and we are going to be talking about some of the concerns
that we have had. As the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Napolitano)
has indicated, Senator Bingaman has been gracious enough to introduce
companion legislation in the Senate.
This landmark legislation is based on a previous Hispanic Health Act,
which I personally introduced in the 106th Congress and on existing
legislation that Senator Bingaman has championed in the Senate. The
legislation offers a variety of different strategies for expanding
health care and coverage, as well as improving access and affordability
and reducing health disparities. While I consider each provision in our
bill to be important, I am just going to highlight some of the more
urgent ones.
In order to address the lack of health care coverage, the legislation
provides additional resources between 2003 and 2010 for the expansion
of the successful State Children's Health Insurance Program, the SCHIP,
to cover the uninsured low-income pregnant women and parents. So we are
talking about going and making sure we cover women that are expecting
kids and their parents.
In addition, it provides States the option to enroll legal immigrant
pregnant women and children in Medicaid as well as the SCHIP. The
Congressional Hispanic Caucus considers the expansion of both Medicaid
and the SCHIP eligibility to be a critical legislative priority for
improving Hispanics' health.
The legislation provides also additional resources for targeting
diabetes prevention. We target $100 million for diabetes. Diabetes is
an illness that hits Hispanics disproportionately as well as African
Americans. The importance of education school-based programs are
critical in the screening activities in the area of diabetes. This is
especially important in our Hispanic communities.
The targeted grant funds of $100 million from our legislation would
also provide support for those who would work in the community to help
educate the community and individuals who suffer from diabetes to be
able to deal with the issue.
Lastly, we would seek to reduce health care disparities by addressing
the lack of providers who can provide culturally competent and
linguistic appropriate care.
The bill provides for increased funding also for HRS health
professional diversities. Let me just say that right now one of our
problems, one of our difficulties is in the area of health professions,
there is a real need for us to begin to prepare individuals in this
area. We are still not producing the number of doctors that we need in
this country. We are not producing the number of nurses that we need in
this country. We are not producing the number of health professionals
in this country. There is a disproportionate number of Latinos and
Hispanics in the health professions. So we need to concentrate on
making sure that we provide the resources in order for that to occur.
And as my colleagues know, the President, in his 2003 budget
proposal, eliminated virtually all funding for these important programs
that allow this opportunity. In addition to promoting the diversity
that is needed in health care, these programs support the training of
health professionals in the fields experiencing shortages.
I did not mention the area of pharmacy, dentistry, the allied health,
all these areas promote access to health care services in medically
underserved communities and there is a real need for us to do this.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus also considers increasing funding
for these programs as a high priority. As the Hispanic community
continues to grow, the implementation of these provisions will take on
an even greater importance. The consequences of inaction will be felt
for years to come in greater health care needs, lower productivity, as
well as higher rates of mortality and disability.
Let me take this opportunity to just indicate how important it is to
make
[[Page H3440]]
sure that we come up and address these issues. I know the President is
going throughout the country talking about another tax cut. The first
year of his administration was spent on a $1.3 trillion tax cut. That
effort was basically spent on the first year. He then spent a great
deal of effort on the war, and now he is spending a great deal of
effort on taxes when, in reality, here we have a problem that we have
chosen not to respond to; we have chosen not to address. This is a
problem that our States are having that we could help with, not only
with the budgets in our States throughout this country, but also help
to respond and address the problems that confront us.
The proposal by the administration to take both the SCHIP program,
the Medicaid, as well as the disproportionate share is a proposal that
hits at the most vulnerable of this country. The disproportionate share
is the money that goes to those hospitals, Mr. Speaker, that provide
that care for those indigents that are out there. That money is
proposed to be put into a block grant. The SCHIP program, as you well
know, is the money that goes to the working Americans that are out
there that takes care of the children in case they find themselves in
need, and that program is also being proposed to be put into a block
grant. And not to mention the Medicaid program, the most needy one, the
one that goes to the most needy of this country, that helps those that
are in most need and that helps hospitals and clinics for their
reimbursement rates.
Those three programs are the ones that target the most needy of this
country, yet those are the ones he wants to take and lump up into one
block grant and send it out to the States and destroy the few programs
that are out there that have been addressing some of the problems that
exist.
The proposal to take both the SCHIP, the Medicaid, and the
disproportionate share, those are the three most important programs
that hit at the most needy of this country and the programs that
provide resources for the hospitals to continue to provide that care.
For us to put that into a lump sum and send it out is going to be
devastating, especially if additional resources do not come to bear on
the problem that seems to be getting worse instead of better.
Since the administration has taken over, the reality is that the
number of uninsured has increased. And based on the numbers of the
individuals that have lost their jobs, those numbers can only get worse
as time goes on.
Mr. Speaker, I know the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Napolitano)
talked a little about mental health. I want to share this because a lot
of time we do not talk about the mentally ill. Mental health is usually
an afterthought, and it is an area we really need to look at and
consider seriously. We quickly forget what happened at Columbine. We
quickly forget the problems that we do have, a lot of homeless
individuals out there, almost one-third to 40 percent of whom suffer
from mental health problems. We still have a lot of homeless veterans
that suffer from mental illness, from post- traumatic stress disorders.
Mr. Speaker, if we look in terms of what has happened after 9-11,
what occurred not only at the Pentagon but what occurred in New York
and what has happened throughout this country, we really need to look
at this issue, because when people have experienced things such as
that, especially those individuals at the Pentagon and in New York
City, those individuals are going to be going through some stress.
There is no doubt that some of them will go through post-traumatic
stress disorders. So there is a need for us to concentrate on the area
of mental health and reach out to some of our young people.
We do not concentrate in mental health with our young and we really
need to provide some resources as well as some research in that area.
We have too many young people committing suicide. We need to see how we
can address that issue. Sometimes, basically, they use alcohol and
drugs as a way of self-medicating when the real problem lies in the
area of mental health problems. So as a Nation we really need to see
how we can address those issues, and I am hoping that we can prioritize
mental health as an important issue.
I know that we have filed some legislation on social work legislation
that deals somewhat with this, especially right after Columbine, in
looking at our young people and working with our schools, in reaching
out to our communities in the area of mental health, to making sure
that our community can cope and our youngsters can deal with
situations.
In addition to that, Mr. Speaker, there are a couple of other issues
I wanted to touch base on.
{time} 2000
Mr. Speaker, one is the area of AIDS. In the area of AIDS, we have
found that we have made some significant strides, yet the numbers in
the minority community have continued to expand. They have continued to
grow. In that area, we need to go out and reach out. We have,
especially in the Hispanic community, in the Latino community, we do
not have the community-based organizations that other community groups
have, and there is a real need for us to make sure that we try to
address those needs. So we need resources in the area of AIDS to
address those problems.
When it comes to communicable diseases, and we are hearing about the
problems in China and those diseases, tuberculosis and other diseases,
when we hear about those types of problems, we need to treat those, and
we need to treat those worldwide. If we do not do that, those viruses
will keep growing. Unless we deal with those and attack those as
quickly as possible, tuberculosis knows no borders. Whenever we travel
in the global economy, we need to make sure that we treat those as if
they were here because of the fact that they are communicable diseases.
They are serious diseases that impact us, and there is no doubt that
AIDS does kill.
It reminds me of a young man who said, I thought we dealt with the
issue of AIDS and it is gone. It is still here, and it still kills. We
need to educate our young people on the issue of AIDS.
On tuberculosis, in the late 1980s in the State of Texas, we were
going to close the hospital for tuberculosis because there were no
patients. We had basically defeated this disease, and yet now we have
other strands that we are unable to deal with. The reason we have other
strands is, number one, people did not take the medication
appropriately and other viruses were able to survive and mutate; and
the fact that we have a lot of homeless that were able to contract the
disease and nothing happened, they were not treated the way they should
have been. Now we have problems with tuberculosis once again, a very
serious disease that has an impact on all of us.
On diabetes, it is an area that concerns me, and it should concern
all of us. The majority of people that go blind is because of diabetes,
and most of the time it is preventable. A large number of people who
lose their limbs is because of diabetes, and a lot of times it could
have been prevented. The quality of life of individuals, not to mention
the cost, both to the individual and to the community as a whole when
somebody loses their eyesight or their limbs, and so it becomes really
important that we provide resources for prevention, that we provide
resources in the area of diabetes.
I wanted to take this opportunity tonight to talk about some of those
issues that we are extremely concerned about. In addition to that,
tomorrow for the first time the Congressional Hispanic Caucus will also
be having a day that we call El Dia de Los Ninos, the Day of the
Children. Children's Day. It is usually celebrated in the Mexican
community. I know Mexico celebrates it, and we celebrate it in Texas.
It is a day that we celebrate as April 30, Children's Day. It is a day
that we take time to honor our children.
Tomorrow we are going to be having some hearings on honoring our
children, and I wanted to take this opportunity to honor our children
tonight by also talking about the needs of our children. Members have
heard the statistics in terms of the uninsured kids out there; but also
our kids need access to some of the services in the area of mental
health, as well as some of the preventive kinds of services. I wanted
to take this opportunity to let the community know that tomorrow the
Congressional Hispanic Caucus will be
[[Page H3441]]
having hearings and panels to talk about children.
Part of the discussion on children will be on the criminal justice
system, the fact that we have a large, disproportionate number of our
children that fall into the criminal justice system that we need to
look at; and it is serious when we have an industrialized country such
as ours. The numbers are just astronomical in terms of the numbers in
our criminal justice system. We need to see what we can do to address
the problem and how we can work with our children.
I also wanted to take this opportunity as we talk about our children
to talk about the issue of Head Start. Head Start has been a program
that has been extremely helpful. It has been a program that has been
there for our children despite the fact that it only addresses 40
percent of the kids that qualify. It is a program that, based on most
of the research that is out there, has been responsive and has really
given those kids a head start on education.
So when we look at those programs that have been good for our kids
and children, Head Start has been one of those programs. Head Start has
been under the Department of Health because it is a program that works
with our parents. So it helps parents in reaching out to the kids. That
is also extremely important for us.
The administration is choosing to basically destroy Head Start and
send that money to the Department of Education. The reason why we
established Head Start was specifically because States have been
unwilling to provide that early childhood education that was needed,
and that is why we have Head Start, not to mention the Department of
Education does not go into the areas of health as the Department of
Health does. I would hope and we will continue to push forward to make
sure that the monies for Head Start remain and with the Department of
Health, and that the program remains with the Department of Health.
It has had its own boards throughout this country, and it has
provided an opportunity for these youngsters to get a head start on
education as well as a head start in the area of health, for parents to
be educated about the importance of nutrition, about the importance of
access to good quality care, as well as the importance of what they eat
and do not eat.
So those issues are important for our children, and as we celebrate
tomorrow Children's Day, we are going to celebrate and talk about some
of the needs of our children. The Hispanic community, the median age
is about 25.9. We are one of the youngest populations in this country,
and it is a growing population. So there is a real need for us to
concentrate on our young. Sixty-five percent of Hispanic children are
under the age of 18 and live with both parents. So here we have 65
percent still live with both parents, which is a much higher number
than the rest of the population. So there is a lot of positives.
Hispanic kids, there is a great deal of positive when it comes to
their attitudes towards family, their attitudes towards adults and
their parents, and also their attitude in terms of the respect to
elders. I think that we need to continue to honor them and recognize
our children as an asset, and as we do throughout this country as
Latinos, we recognize our children on April 30. Tomorrow we are going
to take that opportunity. We call it El Dia de los Ninos, where we are
going to have hearings and talk about some of the needs of our kids. As
we talk about the needs of our kids, there is a study that will also be
released, and it is called Suicide in Latino Children and Adolescents,
and it is a very startling problem that talks about some of the
difficulties that we are encountering, some of the areas of suicide
where it was almost unseen in the Latino community, and that has been
climbing.
One of the biggest problems in terms of death in this area is, number
one, heart deaths. Suicide is number eight. In addition to that, there
are still too many other items there that rank in terms of suicide
rates. One of the rankings of the top States based on the suicide
rates, Nevada is rated number one, Alaska number two, Wyoming number
three, Montana four, Arizona five, New Mexico six, Oregon seven, Idaho
eight, Utah nine, and Maine is number 10 in terms of USA State suicide
rates.
It is important to see some of those States with kind of small
populations, rural areas. It kind of throws off some of the stereotypes
that we hear about. Suicide was the eighth leading cause of death in
the United States, and responsible for 31,000 deaths, which was more
than 50 percent the number of homicides in the U.S. I want to read that
again. Suicide was responsible for 31,000 deaths, which was more than
50 percent the number of homicides in the U.S. In the same year, there
were approximately 20,000 deaths by homicide. Each year in the U.S.
approximately 500,000 people require emergency room treatment as a
result of attempts to commit suicide.
There is a need for us to concentrate resources in the area of mental
health. It is also important to know that the rate of suicide for
various ages, gender, and ethnic groups has changed substantially.
Between 1952 to 1996, a 44-year period, the reported rated of suicide
among adolescents and young adults tripled; but yet from 1980 to 1996,
the rate of suicide from age 15 to 19 increased by 14 percent, and
among persons between the age of 10 to 14 years, it went up by 100
percent.
This area is an area that we really need to look at. I am hoping we
do not have another Columbine before we concentrate attention. We lose
attention right away after the incident occurs. We need to look at
reaching out.
In that same light, and as we talk about the importance of access to
health care, I want to briefly touch base on our veterans. Especially
after Iraq and after our soldiers come back, there is a real need for
us to reach out to our veterans. Anyone who has that kind of experience
has to go through some degree of stress, and a lot of our veterans
suffer from post-traumatic stress disorders and so there is a need for
us to concentrate resources.
I was extremely pleased when the House took the opportunity to
recognize our troops in Iraq and we did a resolution. But that same day
around 3 in the morning the following day, we also passed a budget that
cut $15 billion from our veterans affairs and from services to our
veterans for the next 10 years. That kind of recognition of our troops
and that kind of action does not reflect what we ought to be doing. We
need to make sure and hold ourselves accountable to have the resources
there for our veterans.
I am also disappointed with a lot of the games that are being played.
It has been talked about that we are dishing out $121 million to
prepare our VA hospitals for them to prepare in case of a terrorist
attack; yet that $121 million comes from direct services. We really
need to make sure that we provide additional resources. In addition to
that, I am extremely disappointed also that at the same time we hold
veterans and the administration accountable for terrorist attacks, and
we expect the VA, which has one of the best health systems in this
country with clinics and hospitals throughout this country, and it
would be the best one equipped to respond, yet we have not provided the
resources that they need in order to make that happen.
{time} 2015
And there are little games that are being played that, yes, provide
the resources. The reality is that every single veterans organization
has asked just for this year alone an additional $3 billion, not to
mention next year and the following year. Right now we need $3 billion
additional resources just to take care of our veterans here in this
country. At the same time, we allow $2 billion to go to the Iraqis
people for health care. Of that, close to $80 billion supplemental that
we did.
It would be interesting for some of the Members here to look at what
that $80 billion is going for in Iraq, to build some of the schools
when at the same time we have not taken the time to look at providing
resources to build our own schools. It also provides resources to build
up their hospitals when we have not provided our money and we are
cutting our disproportional share for our own hospitals in country.
It just does not make sense, Mr. Speaker, and it does not make sense
for the President to go around this country to talk about the
irresponsible tax cut when the money is not even there and we have not
taken care of our debt. We need to take care of our debt. We need to
pay for this war. We
[[Page H3442]]
have got to make sure that we provide for our veterans. We have got to
make sure that we provide for our future, which is our kids, and we
have got to make sure that we provide access to healthcare for all
Americans who find themselves in that difficulty.
It is embarrassing to be here and say that we have the best
healthcare in the system; yet it is unaffordable and unaccessible to
the majority of Americans when 41 million find themselves without
access to insurance. That is un-American, and we really need to ensure
that we can make it accessible to all of them.
As I conclude here tonight, I want to just indicate how important it
is for us to refocus our attention in the area of healthcare. We need
to make sure, and I appeal to all Americans, that we need to put
people, both Republicans and Democrats, on the line on the House, on
the Senate, and those in administration, to make sure they do the right
thing for our seniors when it comes to prescription drug coverage. We
have not done that. We have had a lot of talk, but there has been
nothing. And people have asked me back home and they continue to ask me
``Mr. Rodriguez, what are you doing on healthcare?'' And I tell them
the problem is the President is interested in a tax cut. If that
happens, there is nothing else to talk about when the budget
predetermines everything. So we need to make sure we zero in on the
issues of healthcare and addressing the problems. And we get elected to
address problems and we are expected to address those problems.
So I am hoping that we, at some point, begin to not only dialogue
about healthcare, but address the problems. I am sure the
administration, when the election year comes around, he is going to
talk a great deal about healthcare. But the key is what are we doing
about it? What kind resources are we putting into it? Because the
bottom line is we can say everything we want to say, but what have we
done? So when all is said and done, I would ask that we hold all the
Congressman and all the Senators accountable, as well as the
administration, including myself, as to what we have done to basically
solve the problems that confront our communities with the uninsured
that we find in this country.
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