[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19091]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     COMMIT TO FULLY FUND RESEARCH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, tonight I rise to address the continuing 
tragedy of racial and ethnic disparities in America. I want to commend 
my colleague, the gentlelady from Ohio, a member of the Ways and Means 
Committee, Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, and my colleague, our 
great Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Congresswoman Carolyn 
Kilpatrick, for tonight calling us all together later in a Special 
Order.
  I would like to talk just very briefly in support of the efforts of 
my colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus to highlight health 
care as a central and important policy issue in the 110th Congress and 
to call for an end to racial and ethnic health disparities.
  We must no longer turn a blind eye to the continuing pattern of 
racial bias in the delivery of health care in America. The fact is that 
if you are a person of color, are poor or speak a different language 
and walk into a hospital in need of care, you are less likely to be 
diagnosed correctly, less likely to receive the accepted standard of 
care and less likely to walk out. It is a death sentence for millions 
of Americans.
  It is appalling that our Nation cannot commit the resources necessary 
to eliminate once and for all the devastating impact of unequal health 
care delivery in America. We must root out the causes of the continuing 
discrimination against racial and ethnic minorities in our health care 
system.
  We must increase the diversity in the professional health care 
provider workforce. Health care must be delivered in a culturally and 
linguistically appropriate way without having to turn to intermediaries 
or family members to relay private information, health information. 
Funding research into the reasons for the different rates of disease 
incidence and minority populations must be a national priority.
  While Latinos and African Americans make up over 25 percent of the 
U.S. population, they account for more than 67 percent of newly 
reported AIDS cases. Diseases that primarily impact communities of 
color continue to be neglected. We must commit to providing access to 
comprehensive preventive care, educational outreach, health screenings 
and follow-up consultation for at-risk populations.
  Our health care system is broken. Health care should be a right, not 
a privilege. We spend more money on health care than any other Nation 
in the world; yet the United States ranks 23rd, 23rd in infant 
mortality among industrialized nations. We ranked 67th in immunization 
rates overall, right behind Botswana. We were first in life expectancy 
in 1945, and now we rank 20th behind nations like Canada, Britain, and 
France.
  In the 1960s, I lived in Great Britain, and I was exposed to the 
assurance that the British public had in their access to quality health 
care with the British national health service. We in America can do 
better. We must do better. We can ensure that every person in America 
be treated equally, given a fair and thorough diagnosis and be treated 
with the most up-to-date treatments that are available. We must 
remember that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
  In any hospital on any given day or night, in communities with large 
numbers of people of color and African Americans, the poor, you will 
witness this terrible health care crisis firsthand. Just go to an 
emergency room and see who needs medical attention, emergency or not.
  It's about time that we invest resources to close these deadly, and 
that's what they are, they are deadly disparities. We need to enact 
universal health care for all.
  America is the wealthiest industrialized country in the world. It is 
a shame and disgrace that over 47 million have no health insurance and 
that such a large percentage are African Americans, Latinos and Asian 
Pacific Americans.
  What is wrong with this picture? I just want to commend, again, 
Congresswoman Tubbs Jones and the Congressional Black Caucus; and also 
our Tri-Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Asian Pacific 
American Caucus for insisting, and I mean insisting, that this House of 
Representatives begin to focus on closing these deadly health care 
disparities among communities of color.

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