[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 56 (Tuesday, May 3, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H2787-H2788]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING CRAIG WASHINGTON

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gene Green) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I am going to rise tonight to 
talk about a pressing problem of health care, but before I do, I want 
to associate my remarks with the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe), my 
colleague and neighbor, on Craig Washington.
  Congressman Washington replaced Mickey Leland, if anybody could 
replace Mickey Leland, in this House; and I served as a State house 
member and State senator with Craig. I can only say and echo what the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) said, who I know saw him across from his 
bench many times, as he was both a brilliant lawyer and statesman, but 
also one of the most intelligent people I have known.
  Again, I want to associate myself with those remarks and thank the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) for doing that for Craig.


                        Cover the Uninsured Week

  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to talk about 
one of the most pressing problems facing the health care system in our 
country, the growing number of uninsured. Every year since 2000, an 
additional million Americans have joined the ranks of the uninsured.
  The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation recently reported that the number 
of individuals without any health insurance in our country rose to 45 
million this year. This is a problem that we literally cannot afford 
not to address.
  In my hometown of Houston, we are proud to have the world-famed, 
world-class Texas Medical Center. Some of the most innovative and life-
saving research and treatment developments are being discovered in our 
own backyard. The problem is that too many of our neighbors cannot 
access these live-saving treatments because they lack health insurance.
  My State of Texas ranks number one in uninsured adults, with 31 
percent of adult Texans living without health insurance. The statistics 
for the Houston area are just as troubling with more than 31 percent of 
our Harris County residents living without health insurance.
  When a third of the State and county's population is without health 
insurance, I think it is safe to say this problem has reached crisis 
proportions. The increase in the number of uninsured is due, in part, 
to the changing nature of health care in our country.
  Gone are the days when we could count on our employers to provide 
comprehensive health insurance for us and our families. With health 
insurance costs reaching $10,000 per year, low-wage workers cannot fend 
for themselves.
  With full-time minimum-wage workers bringing home roughly that much 
each year, they cannot spend the bulk of their earnings on health 
insurance, and many small businesses are finding that they simply 
cannot afford to purchase health insurance for their employees.
  As a sideline, not only small businesses, but some of our larger 
businesses, whether it be General Motors or Shell Oil, talk about the 
disparities and how much they pay in industrialized countries like 
Europe and Japan for health insurance, and Canada, as compared to how 
much more they pay in our country.
  It is no little surprise that today 80 percent of the uninsured in 
this country are gainfully employed. Unfortunately, my State of Texas 
also ranks number one in the percentage of uninsured working adults, 
with 27 percent of working Texans currently without health insurance.

                              {time}  2045

  This is a problem for all Americans as the uninsured often use 
emergency rooms as their primary source of medical care. In fact, a 
study of emergency room use in Harris County found that 57 percent of 
the diagnoses made in safety net hospital emergency rooms could have 
been treated in a physician's office or clinic. This increases health 
care costs for all Americans.
  The uninsured are less likely to seek preventive health care and only 
get care once their problems reach emergency proportions. In fact, 
nearly 50 percent of uninsured adults have postponed seeking health 
care because they

[[Page H2788]]

cannot afford it. Only 15 percent of those individuals with health 
insurance have postponed care for this reason.
  It is no surprise that the uninsured and underinsured are generally 
more expensive to treat because they fall through the cracks in our 
health care system. Unfortunately, the policies that this Congress has 
supported only serve to widen those cracks.
  Despite being faced with record levels of uninsured individuals, this 
Congress has put Medicaid cuts at the top of the budget agenda. 
Medicaid is the health insurer of last resort in this country, and 
subjecting this critical program to budget cuts will only serve to 
further increase the number of Americans without health insurance.
  Where does Congress think these folks will go once they are dropped 
from the Medicaid rolls? The answer is simple: They will join the ranks 
of the uninsured, and in doing so, they will be three times more likely 
to postpone health care, three times more likely to forego filling a 
prescription, and three times as likely to be hounded by collection 
agents for payments on medical care they do seek out. This is not the 
way to ensure that our citizens are healthy, productive members of our 
society.
  The Federal Government needs to renew its commitment to the most 
vulnerable members of our society. Faced with record levels of 
uninsured, we should be adding people to the Medicaid and SCHIP rolls, 
not dropping them. We should expand the SCHIP program to include 
parents of these CHIP children. That policy option alone would provide 
health insurance to 67 percent of CHIP parents in Texas.
  We should restore funding for the HCAP program, which in my 
community, has helped enroll an additional 250,000 individuals in 
Medicaid and CHIP, while also directing the uninsured away from ERs and 
toward an appropriate health care home. These are programs that work.
  What does not work is picking a budget number out of thin air and 
forcing Members to chop away at a program until it fits that number. It 
is shameful that Congress is balancing the budget on the backs of low-
income families. If we are going to get this country's health care 
system out of the ditch, we must stop digging that ditch.

                          ____________________