[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 7065-7066]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     SMALL BUSINESS EMPOWERMENT ACT

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, this week is the sixth annual Cover the 
Uninsured Week. Community organizations and foundations around the 
country will be hosting events to highlight the need for health reform. 
Across the Nation, we all know this: 47 million people lack health 
insurance. In my State of Ohio, 1.2 million people, 11 percent of the 
population, are uninsured.
  It is no different in the Presiding Officer's State of Pennsylvania. 
But that even one American lacks health coverage is a national 
embarrassment. We are the wealthiest Nation in the world. We spend 
$2.38 trillion a year, $2.3 trillion a year in health care, but we 
cannot make sure that every American has health care coverage? Of 
course we can.
  Every other industrialized nation on this Earth ensures access to 
coverage. We in this body have chosen not to. Last year Congress tried 
to provide health coverage to millions more low-income children. The 
House and Senate both passed bills twice to provide $35 billion over 5 
years in additional funding for the State Children's Health Insurance 
Plan. It was the biggest bipartisan initiative to expand health care 
coverage in years. Twice--not once but twice--the President vetoed that 
legislation. We spend more than $3 billion every week in the war in 
Iraq. The President vetoed legislation spending $7 billion a year to 
insure 4 million children; $3 billion a week every week in Iraq; the 
President vetoed $7 billion a year to insure 4 million children. These 
are the sons and daughters of working parents; sons and daughters of 
parents in Toledo, in Mansfield, in Zanesville, who are working hard 
and playing by the rules.
  Think about this: Since I have begun to speak a few moments ago, we 
have, in Iraq, spent $650,000. Yesterday in Iraq we spent $400 million. 
Last week in Iraq we spent $3 billion. Again, the President vetoed 
legislation $7 billion a year for 4 million children. It was 
disappointing to us as advocates for children's health insurance. But 
mostly it was disappointing to the parents of children around my State, 
in Cincinnati, from Ashtabula, from Marietta to Springfield, to Lima, 
parents around Ohio and around the country who need health insurance 
for their children.
  Not only do many low-income children live without health insurance, 
but families whose breadwinners are self-employed or who work for small 
businesses struggle to get health insurance too, families such as the 
Coltmans of Conneaut, OH, a community in the northeast corner right 
across the line from Pennsylvania. The Coltmans are a large family with 
five children and two hard-working parents. Last year their 7-year-old 
son Caleb was diagnosed with leukemia. The doctors are optimistic, but 
treatment is wildly expensive. Last year, Kenna Coltman, Caleb's 
mother, left her job to work for her family business, a neighborhood 
grocery store. Unfortunately, this meant she had to search for new 
health insurance. After a long search for private insurance, the 
Coltmans found an affordable plan, but it was not scheduled to go into 
effect until August. By that time, Caleb had been diagnosed with 
leukemia, which was a deal breaker for the private insurer. Uninsured, 
facing a catastrophic illness, a parent's worst nightmare, the Coltmans 
had run out of options.
  Kenna, the mother, a college-educated daughter herself of two 
Conneaut natives, recounted the experience this way.
  She said: If there was absolutely any other way to get our son the 
care and medication he needs without totally impoverishing our family, 
we would do it.
  In a country like ours, families should not have to worry about being 
thrown into abject poverty to pay for health insurance. Families want 
to do the right thing. They want to insure their children. They work 
hard, they play by the rules. But insurance is too often out of reach.
  That is why today I am introducing a bill to make health insurance 
more viable for workers employed by small businesses. The Small 
Business Empowerment Act would create an insurance program for small 
businesses and self-employed Americans. This program is modeled after 
the excellent coverage that is provided to Federal workers and to 
Members of the House and Senate.
  To keep premiums affordable, the Department of Health and Human 
Services would create a reinsurance mechanism to help cover high-cost 
enrollees. The legislation would establish a Federal commission to 
tackle the toughest health policy issues: how to rein in health care 
spending without compromising health care quality and access; how to 
craft an insurance package that treats all enrollees equally, 
regardless of what type of health care they need, which is essential; 
how to combat price gouging by the drug industry, the medical device 
industry, and the insurance industry. In other words, how to ensure our 
health care system is sustainable and equitable, efficient and 
effective. The bill was introduced to help families such as the 
Coltmans.
  Thankfully, Caleb's current prognosis is good, and the family 
business seems to be turning the corner. His treatment was covered by 
Ohio's Medicaid I Program, another program that is crucial to providing 
coverage to families who are struggling; another program that is under 
attack by this administration as it tries to change the rules and as it 
cuts billions of dollars from the program.
  This week and every week we need to work to keep Medicaid strong, to 
realize the expansion of CHIP for which we fought so hard, and to pass 
legislation for the self-employed and workers in small businesses. The 
small employer health insurance bill provides more options so that the 
rest of the Coltman family, including Caleb's parents, can access 
health insurance too. I don't want Caleb's parents in Conneaut, OH, to 
live in fear when their children fall down or get in an accident or 
catch the flu or have an allergic reaction to something they ate. They 
have enough on their plate already.
  I look forward to working with my colleagues to protect Medicaid and 
the

[[Page 7066]]

Children's Health Insurance Program and to pass this bill.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. NELSON of Florida. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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