[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 52 (Thursday, May 4, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H2106]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        COVER THE UNINSURED WEEK

  (Mr. ETHERIDGE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Madam Speaker, I rise today to call on Congress to 
address our Nation's health care crisis without further delay. Nearly 
46 million Americans live without health insurance every day. In my 
State, more than 1.4 million people, that is one in five North 
Carolinians under the age of 65, do not have health insurance.
  This is not just a policy debate; it is a challenge to our Nation. If 
we cannot develop a means to deliver affordable health care to 
everyone, we are failing in providing the most basic of protection to 
our citizens.
  I think the key to a strong community is to have healthy individuals 
and families. We need everyone, labor, business, health care 
professionals, seniors and others, working together to develop 
solutions to make it work.
  This Congress must pass legislation that provides adequate 
reimbursement rates for medical providers, that helps small businesses 
and the self-employed to have affordable health care insurance, and 
that provides our community health centers with the funding that they 
need. We must defeat proposed budget cuts in Medicare and Medicaid that 
will hurt American families.
  We must all keep fighting until affordable quality health care is no 
longer a privilege for some but the right of all.

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