[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 45 (Thursday, March 15, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E561]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            INTRODUCTION OF THE CHILDREN'S HEALTH FIRST ACT

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                          HON. JOHN D. DINGELL

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 15, 2007

  Mr. DINGELL. Madam Speaker, we are here because we need to provide 
affordable healthcare options for children. There are 9 million 
children uninsured in the United States today. There is no excuse for a 
country that is spending $1.9 trillion on health care to have even one 
uninsured child, especially when it costs a mere $3.50 a day to cover a 
child.
  Who are these children? Nearly two-thirds are low income children and 
more than half are children in working families. Moreover, over half 
are minorities. But most importantly, these are children that are 
significantly less likely to make it to a doctor when they have an 
acute earache or even recurrent asthma and even die.
  I am introducing the Children's Health First Act with Representatives 
Diana DeGette, Frank Pallone, Henry Waxman, and others, to provide 
every child in this country access to affordable health insurance. 
Senator Clinton is introducing the companion bill in the Senate as 
well.
  This bill builds on successful public programs such as the State 
Children's Health Insurance Program by offering States financial 
support to expand coverage to working families making approximately 
$70,000 a year.
  This bill allows employers and families to access good health 
insurance by buying into an affordable insurance pool. And the bill 
even goes further by allowing States to help employers retain coverage 
they already have through a 50-percent subsidy of the cost the States 
are spending on coverage for a child.
  This bill provides States with new tools to help them find and enroll 
qualified children and ensure benefits and services are available once 
the children are enrolled. The tools include things such as allowing 
States to enroll children in schools and hospitals in public programs, 
allowing States to simplify their applications and renewal forms, and 
allowing children to enroll in coverage for a full year, as in most 
private plans.
  The bill also makes numerous other improvements to Medicaid and the 
State Children's Health Insurance Program. This bill allows States to 
expand coverage to legal immigrants, young adults up to age 25, and 
offers incentives for States to cover pregnant women.
  Health care is every person's problem. It costs our country to have 
parents staying home to care for sick children, for the insured to pay 
higher premiums, for hospitals to provide uncompensated care, and for 
us to have a unhealthy younger generation.
  We cannot continue to ignore a problem as large as 46 million 
uninsured people and certainly not the 9 million vulnerable uninsured 
children. To cover all children, it will cost us a fraction of what it 
cost to provide prescription drugs to seniors. I think it is time we 
agreed to make that investment for our future.

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