[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 146 (Friday, September 28, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12332-S12333]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM

  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Madam President, the rising number of Americans 
without health insurance is a problem that is recognized by all Members 
of this body. There are some 46.6 million Americans today who are not 
receiving proper medical care.
  Compounding the problem is the reality that, as my colleague from 
Oregon--Senator Wyden--likes to say, we do not have a health care 
system in this country; we have a sick care system.
  As we look at the growing cost to our economy that health care 
represents, the number one thing we can do today to reduce that cost is 
preventative medicine--making sure that Americans can access health 
care today, so that they are not sick tomorrow.
  The Children's Health Insurance Program is an important means to 
provide the most vulnerable of our population--our children--with 
health care. And we all know that when our children are sick, it is not 
just the child that is impacted but the parents as well; missing time 
at work to care for their child or catching the latest bug their child 
brings home from the daycare center. The social and economic impact of 
a sick child goes well beyond the need for cough syrup or a band-aid. 
And the impact is even greater in our Native communities.
  Section 401 of the CHIP reauthorization bill provides $10 million in 
grants for child health studies, including: preventative health care, 
treatment for chronic and acute conditions, and discovery of knowledge 
gaps within CHIP and child health. Studies such as these will help to 
narrow the gap in treatment disparities among native and non-White 
children, as well as to provide preventive health care services so our 
children stay healthy while reducing the expensive costs of sick care 
in America.
  This is just one reason why it is important that programs such as 
CHIP continue their viability. If the President vetoes the bill as he 
said he would, the resulting straight reauthorization of CHIP at the 
current baseline assumption means that 800,000 children currently 
enrolled in CHIP would lose their coverage. But under the CHIP 
reauthorization bill, those children, plus 4 million more children 
would be able to access health care--preventive care.
  We should not have to read about tragedies such as 12-year old 
Deamonte Driver from Maryland who died from a tooth abscess. Deamonte's 
life could have been saved by a routine $80 tooth extraction but his 
family was booted from Medicaid and his mother couldn't afford to pay 
for Deamonte to receive the necessary dental care. Deamonte Driver died 
in February of this year.
  This heartbreaking story is just one example of why the 
reauthorization of CHIP--at the Finance Committee passed levels--is so 
important. 800,000 more children should not be put in a similar 
position as Deamonte.
  In addition, outreach programs will allow more children to be 
enrolled in the CHIP and Medicaid programs. This bill provides $100 
million in grants for outreach and reenrollment efforts--$10 million 
will provide grants to Indian organizations to improve enrollment of 
Native Americans. Another $10 million will be spent on a national 
outreach program and the remaining $80 million will target rural areas 
with high rates of eligible but not enrolled children, racial and 
ethnic minorities and populations with cultural barriers to enrollment.
  But CHIP is only one part of the health care struggle. As I noted 
before, some 46.6 million Americans are without health care insurance. 
In my State of Alaska, about one out of six people do not have health 
insurance. And the sad reality is that most of those without health 
insurance are employed. Only 1 in 10 of the uninsured in Alaska are 
unemployed people in the workforce.
  For every family that is covered through an employer-based health 
care policy or is able to purchase their own health care insurance, 
fewer adults and children will rely on Medicaid and CHIP for their 
health care needs, and create less of a strain on Federal resources.
  We know that preventive care is much more effective, both medically 
and economically, than caring for an illness. Likewise, providing our 
businesses with the ability to offer affordable health care insurance 
to their employees is a preventative means to lower the Federal 
Government's costs as mandatory spending for health care programs takes 
up a greater and greater portion of the Federal budget.
  Until we reach the point where we in Congress can agree on how to 
address the future of our Nation's health care policies, however, 
programs like CHIP are needed to ensure that those who are most 
vulnerable are not left out.
  I support this reauthorization bill as a temporary fix of a long 
standing problem, but we as a Congress must be willing to take a 
serious look at the future of our health care system, and ask ourselves 
if we are serious about fixing it. It is a decision that will impact 
millions of Americans. I urge the President to support the CHIP bill to 
allow more American children access to the healthcare they need to stay 
healthy, to stay alert and to function well in school. The best 
investment we can make is in our children and by signing the CHIP bill, 
the President can grant our future generation of over 10 million 
children access to vital health care services.

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