[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 21 (Monday, February 5, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H1178]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           RESPONSE TO PRESIDENT BUSH'S HEALTH CARE PROPOSAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Solis) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SOLIS. Madam Speaker, today I rise to discuss the need to make 
access to health insurance for everyone a priority in our country.
  As you know, 46 million Americans are uninsured, including more than 
9 million children in the U.S. One in three people in the San Gabriel 
Valley, which I represent, is uninsured; and across the State of 
California, 6.5 million adults and 750,000 children lack health care 
insurance. Nationwide, 83 percent of the uninsured are from working 
families. Of uninsured Californians, more than two-thirds of those 
families have full-time jobs. Fourteen million uninsured are Latinos, 
including one in five children.
  In the past 5 years, the number of Latinos without health insurance, 
as you know, has increased. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 
uninsured children are five times less likely to have visited a doctor 
or dentist in the past 2 years compared to those children who are 
insured. Fewer doctor visits can lead to serious illness and health 
problems, as well as avoidable costly emergency room visits. The 
Institute of Medicine estimates that each year at least 18,000 people 
die prematurely due to lack of health insurance.
  But President Bush's proposal will not help the 46 million uninsured 
men, women, and children in our country. Instead of finding real 
solutions, President Bush wants to provide tax deductions to wealthy 
Americans who can already afford their health care insurance. Tax 
deductions, as you know, will not solve the real problem of 
skyrocketing health care costs. Tax deductions will not make it easier 
for low-income families and middle-class working families to purchase 
health care insurance. In fact, as you know, our families may be better 
off without the President's so-called help.
  According to Families USA, President Bush's plan is ``like throwing a 
50-foot rope to someone in a 40-foot hole.'' And for the majority of 
uninsured people, his plan is like throwing them nothing at all.
  People without employer-sponsored coverage, such as people who work 
in small businesses, who make up the majority of those individuals in 
some of our districts, will not benefit from Bush's tax breaks. Even 
White House officials admit that only 3 to 5 million uninsured people 
would actually become insured under Bush's proposal. The President's 
plan, as you know, fails to relieve the problems that most uninsured 
adults and children face.
  We have to do better for the American people. And we must ensure that 
everyone has access to affordable and quality health care insurance and 
that programs are easily accessible by all. Programs such as the State 
Children's Health Insurance Programs, as you know, are very important. 
We call them the SCHIP program, and in the State of California they are 
known as the Healthy Families Program. Across the Nation, Medicaid and 
SCHIP provide coverage for more than 34 million children. These 
programs must be adequately funded and include needed tools to reach 
all eligible populations.
  However, as you know, millions more children are eligible for these 
programs but are not enrolled. In fact, 74 percent of the uninsured 
children are eligible but are not somehow showing up on these 
enrollment applications. Many are low income. They come from families 
that are poor and unaware of the fact that they are eligible even for 
these services. And recent research shows that the SCHIP program may be 
failing to reach the hardest to reach subpopulations of the uninsured 
children like Latinos. And according to Families USA, distrust of the 
health care system, language, culture, these are all barriers that are 
confusing to our families, and those eligibility rules are high 
obstacles for families to enroll.
  Community health care workers, such as the promotoras, play key roles 
in overcoming these barriers to enrollment for public programs. 
Promotoras, as you know, exist in the State of California and along the 
frontera, along the border on the U.S. side. They are qualified people 
who could help patients access and navigate the complex and confusing 
health care system. They can reach racial and ethnic minorities that 
would otherwise remain locked out of our system.
  A recent report by the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics 
compared the effectiveness of community workers with traditional 
Medicaid and SCHIP outreach enrollment. The report found that families 
who interacted with community health workers such as the promotoras 
were eight times more likely to obtain health insurance.

                              {time}  2030

  Almost 96 percent of children who work with promotoras in the study 
obtained health insurance. Seventy-eight percent were insured 
continuously. The study provides that community health workers can 
reduce the number of uninsured children, and we should move forward 
asking for the SCHIP program to also provide for assistance through the 
promotoras program.
  I know that the gentlewoman from California understands what I am 
talking about, because those promotoras also exist in her district as 
well.
  We need to make sure that President Bush plans for a significant 
funds for those children that are uninsured, and I would ask that our 
colleagues please continue to provide funding for the SCHIP program and 
to expand that in those needed areas.

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