[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 8]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 10436-10437]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        COVER THE UNINSURED WEEK

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JOE WILSON

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 19, 2004

  Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, last week was Cover the 
Uninsured Week, I rise today to salute an organization which is working 
to do just that, working to provide assistance to some of the 44 
million Americans who can not afford health insurance today.
  Dr. Dana Kuhn, President and Co-founder of Patient Services 
Incorporated (PSI), is a

[[Page 10437]]

policy entrepreneur who thinks outside the box on how to provide health 
insurance coverage for those with chronic and catastrophic illnesses. 
PSI has successfully found a potential solution to this epidemic 
problem, which affects 44 million of our fellow Americans.
  Since PSI was established in 1989, this national non-profit has 
worked with struggling families afflicted with such disorders as 
Hemophilia, Alpha One Antitrypsin Deficiency, Colorectal Cancer and 
Breast Cancer, Crohn's Disease, and Immune Deficiencies, just to name a 
few. PSI assists by identifying health insurance policies as well as 
subsidizing the health insurance premiums and pharmacy co-payments for 
these families. PSI is financially supported through private donations 
from individuals, pharmaceutical manufacturers, foundations, and other 
corporations and uses these donations to ensure affordable health 
insurance coverage for the uninsured and underinsured.
  PSI has a 15-year success rate of putting the uninsured and 
underinsured back to work by providing a bridge from insecurity and 
disease to one of accessing affordable duality health care therapies. 
During its 15 years of existence, PSI has helped about 20,000 
Americans. The PSI model works to provide Americans with millions of 
dollars worth of medical care for just 5% of the total cost of care.
  PSI saves middle-class families from becoming financially devastated 
when they have a family member with an expensive chronic illness. It is 
the only non-profit of its kind providing health insurance premium 
assistance and pharmacy copayment assistance. In 2002, PSI received a 
positive Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector 
General Opinion for the work it does with Medicare Part B Copayments, 
Deductibles, and Medigap Premiums.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to salute Dr. Kuhn 
and the staff of Patient Services Incorporated for their hard work and 
resourcefulness in developing a workable solution for the epidemic of 
uninsured Americans.

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