[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 14]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 19413]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  MEDICAID IS IMPORTANT FOR PEOPLE AND CHILDREN WITH SERIOUS ILLNESSES

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JAMES P. MORAN

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 29, 2005

  Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, as we approach the 40th 
anniversary of Medicaid on July 30, I want to underscore the importance 
of Medicaid to children and adults with serious illnesses. Medicaid is 
a public health insurance program that helps 52 million low-income and 
disabled Americans, including 540,000 Virginians, stay healthy. 
Nationally, half of Medicaid enrollees are children.
  Medicaid is particularly important to people with serious illnesses. 
Medicaid can be the only way to pay for care.
  Many people with serious illnesses must turn to Medicaid for several 
reasons. Many insurance policies have a lifetime upper limit of $1 or 
$2 million. Approximately 51 percent or 87.5 million people with 
employer-based insurance have a lifetime cap, according to a 2004 
Kaiser Family Foundation survey. Many private insurance plans impose 
pre-existing condition and other exclusions and refuse to insure people 
with serious illnesses and disabilities. Many working Americans do not 
have job-based health insurance because their employers do not offer 
it. The cost of individual health insurance policies is often out of 
reach. And most Americans are too young for Medicare.
  A serious, chronic illness can be emotionally and financially 
devastating. While we have made great strides in treating cancer today, 
everyone fears cancer. In 2004, 1.4 million new cases of cancer were 
diagnosed. In 2005, 34,000 Virginians will have cancer, says the 
American Cancer Society. Since 1990, over 18 million new cancer cases 
have been diagnosed nationwide and 9.6 million Americans are alive 
today with a history of cancer. Some cancer drugs can reach $300,000 a 
year. Hospitalization, chemotherapy, bone marrow transplants, and other 
treatments can be very expensive and people with insurance can reach 
the lifetime limit of their policy quickly.
  Consider also the example of hemophilia. For the typical hemophilia 
patient, clotting factor to prevent bleeding, needed for a lifetime, 
can cost $250,000 each year, according to the National Hemophilia 
Foundation. Look at cystic fibrosis. The care for a person with 
moderate cystic fibrosis can climb to $70,000 a year. The average cost 
of care for all people with cystic fibrosis is $58,000 a year, reports 
the National Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Drugs for rare genetic 
diseases can reach $200,000 a year, says the National Organization for 
Rare Disorders.
  Caring for a person with spinal cord injury can be beyond almost 
anyone's ability to pay and it can be for a lifetime because spinal 
cord injury is most common among teenagers. The Spinal Cord Injury 
Information Network estimates that the average yearly expenses (health 
care and living expenses), for severe injury (high tetraplegia, C1-C4), 
the first-year cost would be $683,000; each subsequent year, $122,000. 
As for lifetime costs, for someone who is severely injured at age 25, 
costs could reach $2.7 million. If one is severely injured at age 50, 
can be $1.6 million.
  Most American families cannot handle costs like those. This is why 
Medicaid is called ``America's safety net''; it is often the only way 
to pay for care.
  I'd also like to focus also on the importance of Medicaid to 
children. Over 25 million American children, one-fourth of all 
children, are enrolled in Medicaid. Medicaid is the largest public 
provider of health insurance for youngsters.
  In Virginia, 23 percent of our children are Medicaid enrollees. 
Sadly, 8.6 percent or 163,501 of Virginia's children have no insurance. 
Insured children are more likely to get health care. Insured children 
are healthier, happier children.
  We also need to understand how important Medicaid is to children's 
hospitals, where very sick children are often treated. In 2003, 
Medicaid-covered children were 47 percent of all discharges and 50 
percent of all inpatient days of care at children's hospitals. 
According to the National Association of Children's Hospitals, children 
covered by Medicaid tend to need more care than other children's 
hospital patients. Children's hospitals provide 40 percent of the 
hospital care required by children on Medicaid. Children with 
particularly complex and life-threatening illnesses are frequently 
treated by children's hospitals and without Medicaid, these special 
institutions could not survive.
  Medicaid has played a vital role in our country these last 40 years. 
I call on my colleagues to join me in working to strengthen Medicaid. 
It is truly a lifeline, especially for those unfortunate children and 
adults with serious illnesses.

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