Children's Health Care

Floor Speech

CHILDREN'S HEALTH CARE -- (Senate - September 20, 2007)

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Mr. DURBIN. Will the Senator yield for a question?

Ms. STABENOW. I would be happy to.

Mr. DURBIN. First, Mr. President, I wish to thank the Senator from Michigan for making this statement on the floor of the Senate. I listened to the news reports this morning and heard that some from the White House said they did not believe we should be helping to pay for health insurance for families who are well off, such as families making $60,000 a year. That was the reference that was made.

The Senator from Michigan, I am sure, is aware that health insurance premiums--assuming the whole family is healthy--could, in some circumstances, cost a family thousands of dollars each year. If their gross income is $60,000, and they are trying to get by with $3,000 or $4,000 a month, an $800 health insurance bill for a healthy family, let alone $1,200 or more for a family with a sick child, it is hard for me to understand how the White House could say a family making $60,000 a year is so well off they would not need help in providing health insurance to their children.

I suggest to the Senator from Michigan that the President's position here seems to me to be inconsistent, in that he is willing to provide tax cuts for the wealthiest people in America and then is saying folks who make $60,000 a year are well off and don't need a helping hand when it comes to their children's health insurance. So in addition to the cost of the war in Iraq, I ask the Senator from Michigan, isn't it a little difficult to understand the President's position of giving tax breaks to the wealthy and not giving working families making $60,000 a year a helping hand with their health insurance for kids?

Ms. STABENOW. Well, my distinguished colleague is absolutely correct, and I thank him for his comments.

This is truly a question of values and priorities. That is what we are about in this business, in this Chamber, when we make decisions. The President has said the wealthiest among us are much more important than moms and dads, most of whom, by the way, are making much less than what we are talking about or the numbers the White House has put out. Those families ought to be able to, at a minimum, know that their children have health insurance when they get sick.

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Michigan for coming to the Senate floor. Occasionally, there are debates in this Chamber that really matter. The debate on the war in Iraq certainly leads that list. We have a deadly war underway. A hundred American soldiers are killed, on average, every single month. Almost 4,000 have died, with 30,000 having been injured. At least 10,000 have been seriously injured, with amputations and burns and traumatic brain injury. That should be the focal point of what we do on the floor of the Senate, and it is.

Yesterday, sadly, an important amendment by Senator Webb of Virginia, an important amendment for soldiers and their families, was defeated, defeated on a vote of 56 to 44. The average person might say: It sounds like you won. Not by Senate math. By Senate math it takes 60 votes on controversial issues, and this required 60, so that wasn't enough. We were defeated in an effort to say something very straightforward: If you are going to ask our soldiers to be deployed in combat, risking their lives for 12 months, you should at least give them 12 months afterward to rest, be reunited with their family, retrained and reequipped, before they go back into combat. So 12 months on duty, 12 months off duty. That was defeated.

If you meet with these soldiers and their families, if you know the stress they are under, if you read the numbers about the divorce rate among our soldiers, the suicide rate, the post-traumatic stress disorder which they are battling as they return from the stress of battles, it is hard to imagine the Senate would not give that kind of consideration to our soldiers and their families. That is a critically important debate.

Now, we will soon move to another very important debate. It is about health insurance. Everybody in America knows there is something that needs to be done on health insurance. There are 47 million of our neighbors in America, people who live with us in our communities and go to church with us, who have no health insurance. In my home State of Illinois, I went back in August in deep southern Illinois, near Harrisburg, in Saline County, and a woman came to me and said: I am 63 years old. I am a realtor. I have never had health insurance 1 day in my life. It is hard to imagine, but that is the reality many working Americans face every single day. They are one diagnosis, one illness away from bankruptcy. Those are the people with no health insurance.

Now, let us speak about those who have health insurance but it isn't good enough; it costs more each year and covers less. We know the story. Businesses tell you, labor unions tell you, families tell you: I don't have the kind of coverage I want, and it costs a fortune. That is the reality.

We also know that in our great Nation there are 15 million children--of the 47 million I mentioned earlier, 15 million are children--with no health insurance. These are kids from families not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid and not fortunate enough to have a parent with a job that has health insurance. There are 15 million kids for whom the only opportunity for health care is a trip to an emergency room.

We wanted to change that 5 years ago, and we passed this CHIP program, Children's Health Insurance Program, and said let us do something about it. So we covered 6 million of the 15 million kids, but now the program is going to expire in a few days. Our hope with this new Congress was we could expand health insurance to cover more children, at least 3 million more. We want to make sure all 15 million are covered, but we are not going to quite reach that goal. We want to at least get closer, with 9 million covered.

We had a bipartisan agreement to do that. The Senate came together, cooperated, compromised, and reached an agreement to expand health insurance protection to another 3 million kids. This morning, the President of the United States had a press availability and announced he would oppose this bill expanding health insurance for children. At the time, the spokesman for his administration said: We don't want to give health insurance to families who are well off. They defined a family that is well off as one that makes $60,000 a year.

Now, I have to tell you, $60,000 is more than the average wage in my hometown of Springfield, IL, but not by much. And $60,000 a year, after you pay your taxes, doesn't leave a lot of money for your mortgage payment, for your utility bills, for your property taxes, and for the kids' school expenses. If you happen to not have health insurance where you work, $60,000 doesn't leave much of a cushion to turn around and buy health insurance. That insurance is going to cost you $60 or $80, maybe $1,000 or more a month.

We think those families, with kids who don't have health insurance, making $60,000, deserve a helping hand so they can at least have the security of health insurance and know their kids are covered. But it is going to be a battle. We are going to pass this bill and send it to the President. He is going to veto this bill--at least he promises to. I hope he reconsiders. But if not, we will then get a chance to override his veto.

This is the kind of debate which matters. For millions of Americans and their families, this debate gets down to one of the real issues that keep parents awake at night, worrying about their kids.

Some of us in our lives have been through this experience. I was a law student when my wife and I had a little baby and were without health insurance. We had some medical issues with our baby. I didn't have health insurance to turn to. That happened many years ago. My daughter is now 40 years old. But let me tell you, I will never forget it. There was a sinking feeling that my girl was not going to get the best doctor and the best care because, as a father, I didn't have health insurance to cover her. It was only for a short period in my life, but I will never forget it. I can't imagine people living with that feeling every day, every week, every month, and every year. Shouldn't we, as a great and giving nation, care about our own first?

This President will not even blink when he sends us a bill in a week or so asking for $198 billion more for the war in Iraq--$198 billion. Yet he is unwilling to spend $6 billion for health insurance for children. That is about what it is each year over a 5-year period of time. He will spend $198 billion for the war in Iraq but not $6 billion to make America stronger, to make America's families stronger.

This is a debate worth waging. This is an issue worth fighting for. This Senate will return to that issue in a week or two, and I hope the American people, on a bipartisan basis, as this bill is bipartisan, will join us in urging the Senate to pass the bill and to override the President's veto.

I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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