[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 15719]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      CREATING COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH CARE REFORM FOR ALL AMERICANS

  (Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. 47 million. 47 million is an absolutely 
unacceptable number of Americans who go every single day without health 
insurance, who when they are sick can't afford to go to the doctor, 
which means that when they do have an ability to access the health care 
system, they have to wait until they are so sick that they use the 
emergency room as their primary access point, which makes health care 
astronomically more expensive.
  When a child in America is 5 years old, American families don't have 
to wring their hands every day wondering how they are going to pay for 
a child's education, because it is universal. You go to kindergarten 
starting on the first day that you are 5 years old.
  That doesn't happen in America when you turn 5 years old and it comes 
to health care. Parents all over America have to worry when their child 
gets sick whether they are going to be able to take their child to the 
doctor, is their problem going to get worse.
  Parents and families in America have to worry about whether they are 
going to continue to have their coverage if they don't have a job. They 
have to worry about being able to get coverage when they are sick. 
Those are worries that are unacceptable in the most prosperous, most 
democratic nation in the world. We must find a solution and create 
comprehensive health care reform for all Americans.

                          ____________________