[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 201 (Thursday, December 24, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S14135-S14136]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            MORNING BUSINESS

  Mr. NELSON of Nebraska. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that 
the Senate proceed to a period of morning business, with Senators 
permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. NELSON of Nebraska. Madam President, I note the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in 
morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I come to the floor today to talk about 
the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which, in a historic 
vote only an hour and a half ago, the Senate overwhelmingly passed. I 
wish to talk for a moment about how that bill will improve the health 
of children across our country, particularly for children in my State 
of Ohio.
  Ohio is home to six of the best children's hospitals that house a 
combined 1,749 beds. Ohio is also home to 218,400 uninsured children. 
The health reform bill which we have been debating on this Senate floor 
for 26 straight days will help cover Ohio's uninsured children and help 
our children's hospitals provide the right care at the right time in 
the right place. This legislation will make sure the children have 
access to oral and vision care. It will keep children healthy by 
eliminating copays and deductibles for recommended preventive care.
  Similarly, in the Medicare section of the Patient Protection and 
Affordable Care Act, senior citizens in Olympia, Redmond, Seattle, 
Cleveland, Akron, and Canton will be able to get free mammograms and 
colonoscopies and preventive care and annual checkups. Children, too, 
under this legislation will have copays and deductibles eliminated for 
recommended preventive care.
  It will extend the Children's Health Insurance Program for an 
additional 2 years and provide States with additional funding to ensure 
children have access to this program. It will increase the number of 
pediatric primary care physicians and pediatric specialists. And we now 
know how important it is, as I learned at Akron's Children's Hospital a 
decade and a half ago, that the government assist in helping with 
training and providing funding through Medicare and through 
appropriations to train pediatric primary care physicians and 
specialists.
  Perhaps most important of all is this legislation will do something 
Senator Lautenberg, Representative Schwartz, and I have tried to do for 
3 years: it will eliminate immediately the preexisting coverage 
exclusion for children. For the past two Congresses, Senator 
Lautenberg, Representative Schwartz, and I have introduced the 
Children's Health Protection Act, legislation that would prevent 
insurers from denying children needed medical care.
  Twenty percent of school-age children suffer from a chronic illness--
20 percent. All too often, these children face challenges accessing 
affordable and adequate health insurance due to their preexisting 
conditions. Children have preexisting conditions too. Yet children with 
preexisting conditions are so often denied medical insurance by 
insurance companies.
  Our bill, which is largely included in the Senate health reform 
legislation which we passed an hour and a half ago, would ensure 
children suffering from chronic and debilitating and life-threatening 
illnesses have access to comprehensive and affordable health care 
coverage.
  This bill will help children such as Shaunell Johnson from Ohio. When 
her parents were unable to care for her, Shaunell was adopted by her 
grandparents, Dorothy and Jack Johnson. Because their income exceeded 
the limits for medical income eligibility, they turned to the private 
health insurance market for Shaunell. However, due to her asthma, a 
preexisting condition, the Johnsons were unable to afford health 
insurance because they earn more than would qualify Shaunell for 
Medicaid but they don't earn enough to afford the $8,700 a year for 
private insurance coverage for a child with a preexisting condition.
  Children with serious medical conditions shouldn't be cherry-picked 
out of health insurance policies while their families struggle to 
provide care and pay medical bills.
  The time has come for Congress to act on behalf of children such as 
Shaunell and the Senate has acted today.
  We must insure that children most in need are no longer denied access 
to health coverage. We must immediately prevent the insurance industry 
from denying millions of children the health care they need.
  The health care reform legislation we passed an hour and a half ago 
will do that.
  Let me explain again why this matters and give some examples. A woman 
named Renee has a 5-year old boy in Ohio with hydrocephalus. He has a 
shunt that drains the fluid from his brain down to his belly. That 
said, he is a healthy, smart, and extremely happy little boy.
  His neurosurgeon said he is truly a best-case scenario--very healthy. 
However, no insurance company will take him--no quote, no interest in 
looking at his medical charts, nothing.
  Renee said her family is truly left with no options for health care, 
unless she and her husband close down their business and go to work for 
corporate America and get in a huge health insurance pool plan.
  Renee, writing about her son, says she can't get him health insurance 
because he has a preexisting condition. This bill, as soon as the 
President signs it, will say to the health insurance industry: You can 
no longer deny, refuse, or lock out insurance for a family because they 
have a child with a preexisting condition.
  Think of the progress and of the thousands whom I mentioned in the 
beginning and the 1,700 children's hospital beds in the children's 
hospitals in my State. There are 200,000 uninsured children in Ohio. 
Many of them are sick enough that they are deemed by the insurance 
company as having a preexisting condition. No longer.
  When the President signs this bill in January, children from Seattle 
to Cleveland, from Cincinnati to Tacoma, will be able to be on their 
parents' health insurance policy and be able to get the coverage they 
need.
  I will share two other stories.
  Laurie writes:

       As a mother who had to deal with a baby born with problems 
     and had many days of hospital stays, and many months of in-
     and-out-of appointments and check-ups, I realized the vital 
     importance of health care.
       I was one of the lucky ones I guess, as I did have good 
     insurance at the time.
       As a healthcare provider myself, I see too often parents 
     not being able to get their child seen [by a physician] due 
     to lack of insurance that does not cover the costs of 
     anything true.

  It is our children who will be our future and those in Congress' 
future. When will enough be enough?
  An hour and a half ago, we answered that question, when will enough 
be enough, when we made this decision collectively--60 of us, an 
overwhelming majority in the Senate--that children with preexisting 
conditions will no longer be denied health insurance.
  Cassandra, a 14-year-old from Toledo, is uninsured simply because she 
is sick. She suffers from seizures and, as a result, no insurance 
company will cover her.
  Cassandra is a nationally ranked figure skater and once skated with 
Michelle Kwan, but after selling their home and everything else they 
own and putting $30,000 on their credit cards just to pay for 
Cassandra's care, the family had to finally sell her ice skating 
equipment on eBay.
  Her parents do everything they can to protect their daughter, 
including buying dim lights and blackout drapes and making sure there 
aren't too many breakable items in the house.
  Cassandra gets treatment for her seizures through the State's Bureau 
for Children's Medical Handicaps, but they are on their own for 
Cassandra's basic medical needs.

[[Page S14136]]

  Cassandra's life will get better. Her family's life will get better 
because of what the Senate did an hour and a half ago. When the 
President signs the bill, she will not be denied insurance for a 
preexisting condition. Her family will be able to pay--at a reasonable 
cost--for insurance so Cassandra will not have to rely on this State 
program that only takes care of procedures but can get the 
comprehensive care she and every other child in this country deserve.
  That is why I introduced this amendment, and that is why Senator 
Lautenberg and I worked on this legislation.
  Every year in my State, over 2 million kids are treated at Ohio's 
children's hospitals. Next year will be the first year that, when they 
leave the hospital, they will not have to worry about insurance 
companies denying them care based on a preexisting condition.

                          ____________________