[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 123 (Monday, July 30, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10303-S10304]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


        SMALL BUSINESS TAX RELIEF ACT OF 2007--MOTION TO PROCEED

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont is recognized.
  Mr. SANDERS. Madam President, I want to take this opportunity to say 
a few words about health care in general and about the needs of our 
children in particular. Let me preface my remarks by saying that I 
think it is clear to most Americans that our health care system today 
is disintegrating, and that we unfortunately and tragically remain the 
only country in the industrialized world that does not guarantee health 
care to all of its people as a right of citizenship.
  Now, I hear a whole lot of talk in the Senate--I heard it in the 
House--about health care. But, up front, we should be aware that there 
is something fundamentally wrong in terms of the way we do business 
that 46 million Americans have zero health insurance, that the cost of 
health care is soaring every single year, and that tens of millions of 
Americans who do have health insurance have very weak insurance 
programs and are underinsured.
  On top of all of that, with 46 million uninsured, tens of millions 
underinsured, we continue to pay by far the highest prices in the world 
for our prescription drugs. In other words, we have a problem, and the 
time is long overdue for the Senate to stand up to the insurance 
companies and the drug companies and start representing the American 
people.
  In my view, the solution is moving us toward a national health care 
program which provides health care to every man, woman, and child as a 
right of citizenship.
  When people say, well, something like that will be very expensive. 
Well, not really. What we have now is clearly the most inefficient and 
wasteful nonsystem in the world by which we are spending twice as much 
per capita for health care as any other major country.

[[Page S10304]]

  So people say: Well, gee, the Canadian system is not perfect; The 
British system is not perfect; The Danish system is not perfect. True 
enough. Neither is our system. And we spend twice as much per person on 
health care as does any other system.
  Tonight, and in the coming few days, we are going to be focusing on 
the needs of our children. In the midst of a nation with 46 million 
uninsured, we have over 9 million children, one in nine, who are also 
uninsured. Every 46 seconds another baby is born uninsured in the 
United States.
  I have heard a lot through my career in the U.S. Congress about 
family values. So let me be very clear and suggest that it is not a 
family value to live in a country in which 9 million children have no 
health insurance at all.
  Uninsured children are almost 12 times as likely as insured children 
to have an untreated medical need, are four times as likely as insured 
children to have an unmet dental need.
  The statistics go on. An estimated two-thirds of children and 
adolescents with mental health needs are not getting the care they 
need. Only one in five children with serious emotional disturbances 
receives specialized treatment. Given this sorry state of affairs, I 
find it ironic that we are having any debate about increasing health 
care coverage for children under the CHIP program. It seems to me that 
the very least this Nation should be doing is providing health 
insurance to every child in America--something, by the way, this bill 
does not do.
  If this bill, in its current form, were to pass tomorrow, it would 
provide health insurance to approximately one-third of the children who 
are uninsured--one-third. In my opinion, as we move toward a national 
health care program guaranteeing health care to every man, woman, and 
child, the very least we should be doing is making sure all of our 
children are covered. That is why I have recently introduced S. 1564, 
the All Healthy Children Act of 2007.
  This bill, in fact, would provide the opportunity for every child in 
America to have health care coverage. In addition, since insurance 
coverage alone does not guarantee access--in other words, you can have 
health insurance, but you cannot necessarily find a doctor or a dentist 
who will treat you--we must also make certain there is an adequate 
supply of health professionals and conveniently located sites of care.
  Along with Senator Murkowski, I have also introduced S. 941, the 
Community Health Centers Investment Act, to significantly expand the 
number of community-based, federally qualified centers, a proven cost-
effective system of primary health care that is governed by the people 
who use it. These health care democracies serve all regardless of 
ability to pay and insurance status.

  The issue we are dealing with in terms of health care is not only 
providing health insurance but making sure there are doctors and 
clinics and hospitals available to treat the people who need the help. 
One of the crises, of the many we are facing as a nation in terms of 
health care, is, believe it or not, we are not producing the doctors we 
need for today, especially in rural areas and primarily in primary 
health care. We are not producing the dentists we need. We are not 
producing the nurses we need. As our Nation becomes older, those 
problems will only become more severe.
  In that regard, I have done what I could and will continue to move 
forward to significantly increase the funding for the National Health 
Service Corps, to provide scholarships and loan repayment to those 
choosing primary care specialties and agreeing to practice in 
underserved areas. I am happy we are on a path to increase funding for 
community health centers, but clearly we have a long way to go in order 
to fund the national health service.
  While the debate on these initiatives awaits another day, we must 
pass a CHIP bill that matches the House bill in funding level. 
Accordingly, I will be cosponsoring the Kerry amendment to provide 
SCHIP with a $50 billion increased authorization over the next 5 years. 
At a minimum, though, I certainly hope the Senate passes the bill 
approved by the Senate Finance Committee.
  I know some of the objections raised about expanding health care 
coverage for children come from people who think spending the amount of 
money proposed in this legislation is too much. I mention to those 
Members who, in many cases--certainly including the President of the 
United States--are supporting the repeal of the inheritance tax, the 
estate tax, to tell them that with the full repeal of the estate tax, 
one of the wealthiest families in America would receive in tax breaks 
almost as much money as we are attempting to spend right now to provide 
health care for over 3 million American children. So on the one hand, 
there are people--the President of the United States, among others--who 
say we have to repeal the inheritance tax, all of which benefits now 
will go to the wealthiest three-tenths of 1 percent. One family getting 
$32 billion, that is a good idea. But to provide $35 billion to provide 
health care for over 3 million American children, that is a bad idea. I 
think those priorities are a little bit backwards.
  Let me conclude by saying all of us are very proud to be Americans. 
We want this country to be No. 1 in many respects. It should not give 
any of us pride to know that in every other major country on Earth 
virtually all of the people have health insurance as a right, have 
lower cost prescription drugs than we do. The idea that today and 
tomorrow we will be debating whether we can afford to provide another 3 
million children with health insurance suggests to me we have a long 
way to go in this debate. We should not only provide health insurance 
to 3 million children, we should provide health insurance to the over 9 
million children who are without health insurance. We should provide 
health insurance not just to 9 million uninsured children but to 46 
million uninsured Americans.
  In my view, health care is a right, not a privilege. The idea that 
there are people today who are scared to death about what happens when 
they or their children become ill because of the high cost of health 
insurance is something that should not take place in this country. This 
bill is a small but important step forward.
  At the end of the day, we have to join the rest of the industrialized 
world and make sure all of our people, regardless of income, have high 
quality health care.

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