[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 144 (Wednesday, September 26, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12133-S12134]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CHILDREN'S HEALTH CARE
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I hope tomorrow the Senate will pass
urgently needed help for millions of America's children. I hope it will
be done quickly because it is a moral abomination that millions of
America's kids don't have health care. If the Senate acts quickly and
the White House approves the legislation, it would then be possible to
move forward on a bipartisan effort to more broadly address the
extraordinary health care needs of all of our citizens.
The fact is, you don't get anything important done on health care, or
other issues, unless it is bipartisan. Tomorrow, we will see a textbook
case of bipartisanship on display on the floor of the Senate. Four
members of the Senate Finance Committee on which I am proud to serve--
Senators Baucus, Grassley, Rockefeller, and Hatch--and I see my friend
from Utah on the floor. I salute him personally in my remarks because I
know the Senator from Utah, the Senator from West Virginia, the Senator
from Montana, and the Senator from Iowa spent hours and hours, day
after day, working on the legislation to help our kids.
Bills such as this don't happen by osmosis; they happen because
legislators of good faith, such as Senator Hatch, who, along with
Senator Kennedy and others, was a pioneer of this effort. Senator Hatch
has addressed the major concerns. This is protecting private options
for health care for children. He has been able to target the neediest
youngsters. I am pleased he has addressed this waiver question and the
remarks that the Senator has made and the distinguished Senator from
Iowa has made, joining Senators Baucus and Rockefeller. This is a
textbook case, in my view, of how we address health care in a
bipartisan way.
Frankly, one of the points I am going to make tonight in my remarks
is that I wish to have this issue addressed by the Senate quickly
because, first, our kids need it so much and, second, because if we can
get it done quickly, he and I, Senator Grassley, and so many other
colleagues on the Finance Committee still want to work in a bipartisan
way to go further.
Mr. HATCH. Will the Senator yield?
Mr. WYDEN. Yes.
Mr. HATCH. I thank the Senator for his kind remarks, which come from
somebody who I know takes health care very seriously and has proven
himself to be one of the leaders in health care. I personally pay
tribute to the other Members who have also worked so hard on the SCHIP
bill; in particular, Senator Kennedy. I remember back in the early
days, when it was a lonely thing for Senator Kennedy and I to go around
the country talking about helping the poor kids, the only ones left out
of the health care system. It took a leading liberal such as Senator
Kennedy and this poor, old beaten-up conservative to be able to do
that.
I am grateful we were able to come up with a bipartisan bill that the
House was kind enough to work with us on. That was one of the rare
bipartisan efforts this year that I would like to see more of in the
Congress.
I sure hope somehow or another we can get the CHIP bill not only
authorized but passed and signed into law so these 10 million kids have
a future from a health care standpoint.
In any event, I did not mean to take so much of the Senator's time,
but I wanted to thank him for his very kind and thoughtful remarks. His
friendship is important to me. I personally congratulate him for his
sensitive and very professional work on health care, not only in the
House of Representatives but here as well.
Mr. WYDEN. I thank my friend. The fact that Senator Hatch and Senator
Kennedy, in particular, have prosecuted this cause of improving health
care for our citizens has been so important. It is going to pay off, I
hope, this week with resounding support for the children's health bill.
I want to spend a few minutes tonight talking about the possibility,
with a strong victory for the cause of children's health, about the
prospects of moving on from there. I wish to pick up on the remarks of
the distinguished Senator from Iowa, Mr. Grassley. He has been very
gracious in terms of working with me and looking at the variety of
options for broader reform. And I appreciate the conversation that
Senator Grassley had just a few days ago with the White House.
What a lot of us are saying to the White House is we think you have
some valid points with respect to the broader issue of health care
reform. I happen to think that Democrats have been spot on, absolutely
correct on the coverage issue. We have to cover everybody because if we
do not cover everybody, the people who are uninsured shift their
[[Page S12134]]
bills to people who are insured. But Republicans have had a very valid
point as well that there ought to be private options, that there ought
to be choices, that you need to have a strong delivery system with
American health care in the private sector. That is why I made mention
of the emphasis in the children's health bill on the private sector
options.
My message to the White House has been, and I think the distinguished
Senator from Iowa has made the same point, that it will not be possible
to go on to the broader issue of health care reform until first the
urgent needs of our children, needs that are demonstrated every single
day in communities across the land--we are not going to see efforts on
the broader reform effort pay off until first the needs of our children
are met.
I hope the White House will see that the prospects of getting into
issues that they correctly identify as important--I have said for a
long time, and I say to my colleagues again, every liberal economist
with whom we have talked in the Finance Committee and the Budget
Committee has made the point that the current Tax Code
disproportionately on health care favors the most wealthy and
encourages inefficiency.
If the children's health bill can get passed, and passed quickly, we
can then go forward, Democrats and Republicans, to work together on it.
I have a different approach than the White House has with respect to
fixing the Tax Code on health care, but certainly there are ways that
Democrats and Republicans can work together if there is the same kind
of good faith, bipartisan effort we have seen with Democratic and
Republican leaders on the CHIP legislation.
I hope the White House will not veto the CHIP bill. They want broader
health care reform, and so do I. The fact is, Senator Bennett of Utah
and I, along with Senator Gregg, Senator Alexander, and Senator Bill
Nelson, have brought to the floor of the Senate the first bipartisan
universal coverage health bill in more than 13 years. It has been more
than a decade, I say to my colleagues, since there has been a
bipartisan universal coverage bill.
The fact is, out on the Presidential campaign trail, a lot of the
Democratic candidates for President and a lot of the Republican
candidates for President are talking about some of the very same
approaches I outlined when I proposed the Healthy Americans Act in
December of 2006.
This is an important time for the future of health care in our
country. I hope steps will be taken to meet the needs of our kids that
are so urgent and the President will sign that legislation, that he
will see the value of the important bipartisan work done in this
Chamber. If he does, even though the clock is ticking down on this
Congress--and there is not a lot of time left for major initiatives--I
still believe, as do Senator Bennett and the sponsors of the Healthy
Americans Act, Democratic and Republican colleagues with whom we
continue to talk, that it is possible to go forward after a good
children's health bill is passed to have broader health reform. And I
think colleagues understand how urgent that is.
One of the sponsors of our Healthy Americans Act, Senator Gregg, the
ranking Republican on the Budget Committee, just came into the Chamber.
I am very honored to have him as a cosponsor of the Healthy Americans
Act. Senators Gregg and Conrad have correctly identified entitlement
spending and the need to address it as a special priority.
The fact is, we cannot address the growing escalation in entitlement
spending unless we deal with health care reform. We just cannot do it.
It cannot happen because there are no costs rising in America like
medical bills. Medical bills are a wrecking ball, flattening
communities across the country and are the principal factor in the
mushrooming cost of entitlements.
Again and again, the question of our country's well-being, the place
of our companies in a tough global marketplace, the spiraling cost of
entitlements comes down to the need to better address comprehensive
health reform.
I believe, even though there is not a lot of time left in this
session of Congress, that can be done, but only if, as Senator Grassley
noted early in the evening, the legislation that ensures that at least
this session of Congress, at a minimum, takes steps to remove some of
that moral taint we now face because our kids don't have health care.
If that is done, we can go on from there.
I hope tomorrow we will see a resounding vote for the country's
children. It is in their interests, it is in their name that we have
had a bipartisan coalition working on the legislation. But I also
suggest to the White House and others who want broader reform, reform
that picks up on some of the White House's principles, it cannot happen
unless the children's health bill is passed, and passed with a strong
majority this week and the President signs it into law.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I echo the words of the Senator from Oregon
and thank him for his leadership on health care issues and especially
his urging the President of the United States to sign the children's
health insurance bill. We are hoping for a strong vote in the Senate
tomorrow in passing that very important legislation.
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