[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 15617]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, with the cost of health care 
continually increasing for employers, individuals, and the Government 
combined with the growing number of uninsured Americans it is clear 
that our health care system is in dire need of change. My goal is to 
help every American have access to affordable health insurance and to 
continue the State Children's Health Insurance Program, SCHIP.
  In an op-ed in The Hill on June 6, 2007, the Secretary of Health and 
Human Services, Mike Leavitt, suggested a very good proposal for 
increasing access to health insurance. His proposal calls for 
reauthorization of SCHIP and keeping the program's focus on kids, 
providing the same tax advantage to all Americans through a standard 
deduction for health insurance, and encouraging State innovation 
through grants to help low income individuals afford private health 
insurance.
  I support Secretary Leavitt's ideas. However, health care reform is 
too big of an issue for one party to tackle on its own. Our only chance 
of achieving true, meaningful reform is if both parties work together. 
This involves reaching across the aisle and getting Democrats to say 
two words ``private markets'' and Republicans to say to two words 
``universal access.''
  Two of my colleagues have put forward two different but thoughtful 
pieces of legislation addressing the uninsured Senator Wyden's Healthy 
Americans Act, S. 334, and Senator Coburn's Universal Health Care 
Choice and Access Act, S. 1019. But I am doing something that I rarely 
do: cosponsoring both of them to encourage my goal of affordable health 
insurance for every American while continuing the SCHIP program helping 
children.
  I have cosponsored these bills in the spirit of reform, but that does 
not mean I support every provision in both pieces of legislation. In 
fact, there are some provisions that I oppose. Though not perfect, 
these bills are an important first step toward achieving access to 
health services for all Americans.

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