[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 192 (Monday, November 27, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7326-S7327]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Healthcare
Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, right now, as we all return from
Thanksgiving--some of the American people did not have to work over
Thanksgiving weekend, but many, many people in this country do and
struggle and continue to work two jobs--and as Congress returns from
Thanksgiving, the priorities of this Congress are becoming pretty
darned clear to the American people. People want to know the answer to
a fundamental question. In this body we all stand up for election every
6 years--in some cases, a little more often--and people fundamentally
want to know which side you are on. Are you on their side? Are you on
the side of Wall Street or the side of corporations that outsource
jobs?
So the question is this: Whose side are you on? The question is this:
Are you going to stand with multinational corporations that ship jobs
overseas, all to pad their own executives' fat bonus checks? Are you
going to stand with banks that rip off consumers or that steal their
information and get off scot-free? Maybe some of their executives give
their bonuses back, but that is about the only penalty they pay. Are
you going to stand with American workers who have been working too hard
for too long for too little pay and who are just looking to catch a
break? Are you going to stand with children whose parents work two jobs
to put food on the table when, unfortunately, both jobs that they work
do not pay for health insurance? These are the choices we face.
Right now, the leader of the Senate--the majority leader, who works
in that office down the hall, the majority leader back in that office
there--negotiates with lobbyists, negotiates healthcare bills, and
writes healthcare bills in the back room with drug company lobbyists
and insurance lobbyists. Now he has written a tax bill in the back
room. We voted on it last week in committee, but it just keeps
changing. That is all done in the back room with Senator McConnell, the
Republican leader, and his lobbyist friends from corporate America--
with the corporate America that ships jobs overseas, with the Wall
Street banks that fleece Main Street taxpayers, and with other
corporations, which are the drug companies and oil companies and the
Koch brothers and all of that. These are the choices that we face. The
leaders of the Senate have made it really clear whose side they are
on--period.
While the Senate spends its time on a bill to cut taxes for
corporations that send jobs overseas--that is the bill that Senator
McConnell is negotiating, is writing, is drafting with his lobbyist
friends in that office down the hall--children here in America, pure
and simple--there is no other way to say it--are about to be kicked off
of their health insurance through the Children's Health Insurance
Program. As soon as this week, families of young children are going to
get letters in the mail that will bring devastating news--that their
children will lose their health insurance--period. There are 209,000 of
them who live in my State of Ohio--209,000 of them alone.
This is what this program is. It was founded more than two decades
ago. Senator Hatch--I give him credit as chairman of the Finance
Committee--doesn't seem as interested, frankly, in this bill today as
he was when he started, when he wrote the bill, because it has passed
out of his committee, and Senator McConnell is too busy to put this
bill on the floor so that we can pass it.
The bill works this way: If there is a family and the parents lose
their insurance, as many families do, the children still get insurance.
That is why 209,000 children--tens of thousands of families in my
State--rely on the Children's Health Insurance Program. But this fall,
because this Congress is too busy giving tax cuts to rich people,
because this Congress is too busy giving all kinds of breaks to the
Nation's banks, because this Congress is too busy doing the bidding of
the drug companies and the health insurance companies and the bidding
of the oil companies, this Congress let CHIP expire.
States are beginning to run out of money for CHIP. States are
preparing to shut down this lifeline for 9 million children in Kansas,
Ohio, Florida, and all over the country. Folks in this body--don't
forget, we all get our health insurance funded by taxpayers, but we
haven't done our job. As a result, families of 209,000 children in Ohio
and 9 million children in the United States are going to pay the price.
Think about how devastating it would be to get that letter in the
mail. It is already an expensive and stressful time of year. Parents
are worried about all kinds of things--higher heating bills, visits to
their families for the holidays, the cost of childcare when kids take
off from school for the holidays. They are scraping together what they
can for gifts. They are already stressed enough. Imagine having to tell
your daughter: I am sorry, honey, Santa probably isn't bringing much
this year. We won't have any presents under the tree.
You try not to let the child see the worry in your eyes because you
are wondering how you are going to afford the debt for regular checkups
each year, or God forbid she gets an ear infection or something happens
and she needs to go to the doctor. But, oh my gosh, no, we got this
letter in the mail that says--and I don't know if the letter will say
it this way, but it should--that because Congress failed to do its
job--a bunch of elected officials who have insurance paid by taxpayers
failed
[[Page S7327]]
to do their job to reauthorize and fund this bill so that 209,000
children in Ohio will be protected, as well as 9 million people in the
country--Ohio, Arizona, California, Minnesota, and Oregon are all
expected to run out of CHIP money by the end of the year, early
January. Some States will need to start notifying families right now
that they could lose their coverage. Virginia will have to start
sending out notices as early as this week. Many other States expect
funds to run out the first of the year.
This is not just a few children whom maybe we don't want to think
about; this is 9 million children--209,000 children in my State, tens
of thousands of children in Kansas, and it is hundreds of thousands of
children in Senator Nelson's Florida. These are working families who
don't qualify for Medicaid but can't afford private insurance. They are
families with two working parents who often aren't lucky enough to work
for companies that provide health insurance. They are families with
children who have special needs. CHIP helps provide access to specialty
providers so the kids are never faced with a situation where their
family can't afford the therapy or the expensive prescription drugs
they need.
Healthcare for all of our children is something on which we ought to
be able to come together, wouldn't you think--especially at the holiday
season. Leading into Christmas, wouldn't you think we could agree on
that, that we ought to take care of the Children's Health Insurance
Program?
There has never been a gap for funding in the CHIP program. It was
created in a bipartisan way. Senator Kennedy, who sat over here,
Senator Rockefeller, who sat over here, and Senator Hatch, who is still
in this body, all worked to create this program.
In those days, Senator Hatch said: ``As a nation, as a society, we
have a moral responsibility'' to ensure our children have healthcare.
We have maintained that bipartisanship ever since, until now--until
Speaker Ryan and Leader McConnell, who would rather worry about tax
cuts for the rich, would rather worry about helping banks keep
consumers from having their day in court, would rather worry about
helping the Koch brothers and the drug companies. That is way more
important than taking care of 209,000 children in Ohio. I guess it is
more important for Senator McConnell to go back in that room and write
a bill with his lobbyist friends from the Koch brothers, oil companies,
drug companies, and Wall Street--all his special interest buddies. He
can write a bill for those big tax breaks for those companies but just
not get around to taking care of these kids.
Two years ago, with the support of advocates all over the country, we
extended funding for CHIP with bipartisan support. We did it for 2 more
years. We put kids first in this body, acted early to extend CHIP so
families wouldn't have to worry. This year, in committee--and I give
credit to Senator Hatch in this case, as well as Senators Portman,
Wyden, and others. We passed a 5-year extension of CHIP, and almost all
my colleagues voted for it, but passing it out of committee and patting
ourselves on the back doesn't get the job done.
I ask all my colleagues who sit here--again, with health insurance
paid for by taxpayers--for one time this Christmas season to set
partisanship aside and actually do the right thing. Let's forget the
tax bill for just a few days. Let's forget helping the Wall Street
banks for a few days. Let's forget about helping the oil companies and
billionaire contributors on whom Senator McConnell and his colleagues
rely. Let's forget about that just for a few days, and let's take care
of 209,000 children in Ohio and tens of thousands of children in Kansas
and 9 million children around the country.
My friend Bill Considine is the CEO of Akron Children's Hospital. He
is the longest serving CEO of any children's hospital in the country.
He said: ``The fact that this reauthorization has been delayed for
political reasons, for shallow campaign promises, is inexcusable.'' I
have known Bill Considine for 25 years. I don't know if he is a
Republican or a Democrat. Certainly, I don't think he cares much about
that. What he cares about is taking care of kids. He says that the fact
that we are putting these children and families at risk in the country
we live in--there are no words we can use to justify it. He is right.
There is no way to justify Congress's negligence. We need to
reauthorize the Children's Health Insurance Program this week--now.