[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 19 (Friday, January 30, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1121-S1122]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM

  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I wish to express my optimism 
that with a new administration and a new Congress, we will finally be 
able to achieve what was left unfinished last year: the expansion of 
the Children's Health Insurance Program. Though we are in difficult 
economic times, we can

[[Page S1122]]

never afford to squander our Nation's most precious resource--our 
children.
  From 1994 to 2000 I served as the State of Florida's elected 
treasurer and insurance commissioner. During my tenure, I oversaw the 
implementation of the SCHIP program, or the Healthy Kids Program, as it 
is known in Florida. There is no doubt in my mind that this program 
works. Nationwide, in 1997 23.3 percent of low-income children were 
uninsured. By 2006, this number had dropped to 15.4 percent.
  However, much remains to be done. The rate of uninsured children in 
Florida is nearly 19 percent--the second worst in the country. Around 
8.6 million children in America are uninsured; nearly 900,000 of these 
children are in Florida. One of the reasons I support this bill so 
strongly is that it expands coverage and offers incentives for States 
like Florida to find and enroll uncovered children. During difficult 
economic times such as these, there are more children in need of the 
CHIP program, not fewer.
  While I am very satisfied with the progress this legislation would 
make in covering children, I do have concerns about its financing. I 
want to emphasize that increasing the tobacco tax is an appropriate 
funding mechanism for this legislation. It will have significant 
positive impacts on health, save untold millions in health care costs, 
and reduce the prevalence of smoking among the children whom this bill 
is designed to protect. However, I am concerned that the tax is applied 
unequally across different tobacco products.
  Under the current legislation, there is a much higher tax increase 
for large cigars than for other tobacco products. This is no small 
problem for Florida--90 percent of large cigars in the U.S. are either 
manufactured or imported through Florida, accounting for approximately 
3,000 jobs. While I remain opposed to placing an unfair tax burden on 
any one product, I still feel we have a strong bill on the whole, one 
that will improve health care dramatically for America's children.

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