CHIP

Floor Speech

CHIP

Mr. REED. Mr. President, I rise at this moment to speak in strong support for the renewal of the Children's Health Insurance Program. It is an issue that is fast upon us. The House of Representatives passed this legislation last evening. We will, I hope, do the same, and will send it to the President.

This is an issue that is not just an economic issue; it is also a moral imperative. If we cannot ensure the children of this country have the opportunity to have access to good health care, then we cannot ensure that we keep pace with the basic notion of this country: opportunity for all of our citizens.

Health care and education together are the engine that moves this country forward. They give children a chance to use their talents, develop their talents, and go on and contribute to this great country. But also it makes tremendous economic sense. As we invest in children's health care, we hopefully will ensure that throughout their lifetime they will not only have healthy lifestyles, but they will have the advantage of a good start, so that their efforts can be directed toward contributing toward their community, and contributing to this economy.

We understand that the costs of health care are skyrocketing, and that for many families they have, unfortunately, had to make the choice of forgoing it, to leave their children vulnerable, without access to good primary care, without access to specialized care when they need it.

We also understand that these children, when they get sick, ultimately find their way to an emergency room and we end up paying much more, because a child who can be seen on a regular basis could have access to preventive care. Arriving at the emergency room with a very serious condition requires a great deal more resources than seeing a child before that condition becomes serious, and becomes an emergency.

So we should be, I think, smart, as well as morally responsive to the issue before us. And that directs me to my strong support for this legislation. The final bill which will be coming before us will invest $35 billion in our Nation's children and their future. It preserves coverage for 6.6 million children, but it will also reduce the number of uninsured children by 4 million.

In fact, the final bill improves upon the Senate bill that I proudly supported weeks ago. It provides quality dental coverage to all children enrolled. That is critical. I can recall listening to a foster mother in Rhode Island. She had six different foster children. What was her biggest complaint? She could not get a dentist. They would not see her because she did not have dental coverage. Her complaint to me was a repetition of what her child said to her in so many words, which was: What do I do? How do I take care of a toothache? How do I go to school when I cannot bear to concentrate because of the pain?

For most of us here in this room, that would be a simple call to the dentist, a trip there, and immediate relief, and for our children also. But for millions of Americans, that is not the case. Here we have a chance to give them what we too often take for granted.

I think it is going to be an important step forward. I am particularly proud, because the architect of this program 10 years ago was Senator John H. Chafee of Rhode Island. He stood on a bipartisan basis with many in this Chamber and pushed for the adoption of the children's health care bill. It stands as a legacy to him. It is a vibrant legacy which we in Rhode Island cherish and we hope we can extend through this legislation.

The final bill that will result we hope in passage and signature by the President will give Rhode Island an increase in Federal funding from $18 million to $93 million. It will prevent future shortfalls. Last November on the floor of the Senate before we went out, I insisted that we could not leave until we provided help to States that had already run out of their SCHIP funding. We were able to do that.

But those stopgap measures at the eleventh hour do not provide for the kind of planning and predictability that are essential to keep the costs down and keep the program going. I do think, again, this is a bill that is worth all of our efforts and all of our support.

If we can afford to spend $12 billion a month in Iraq, we must be able to afford to spend a fraction of that to give children health care in this country. I just left the Appropriations Committee hearing. Secretary Gates is urging $50 billion more funding for Iraq. That is quite a bit more than we are asking over 5 years for the children's health care program. That is just for several months in Iraq.

The American people, I believe, will demand that we pass this legislation. If we can find the resources overseas, we have got to be able to find the resources here for this compelling issue.

The other aspect of this is this legislation is fully paid for, unlike the spending in Iraq which is deficit spending, which we are literally sending forward to the next generation of Americans to deal with. This is fully paid for by an increase in the cigarette tax; sound fiscal policy as well as sound public policy.

Now, we have heard a lot from the President, particularly about why he is proposing to veto this legislation. I find it hard to discover any logic at all. It is full of misrepresentations, frankly. The bill does not cover children up to 400 percent of poverty. In fact, about 80 percent of the newly insured children are from families below 200 percent of poverty. Those are the new children to be enrolled.

This bill is well targeted, and provides incentives to ensure that the lowest-income children are insured first. This does not federalize health care or socialize it. In fact, in Rhode Island this children's health care program is run by private health insurance companies, and that is a very effective and efficient approach.

What I have noticed over the last few years is not that private health insurance has expanded dramatically in this country and this legislation would constrain that. Quite the opposite. With private health insurance, the number of insured Americans has decreased. They are losing their private insurance. It is too expensive. So the idea that this somehow is going to throttle the attempts of the private insurance industry to insure those children is, on its face, preposterous.

Those children will not be insured because their parents cannot afford to pay the coverage, and because private insurance companies operate at a profit, they do not extend coverage because they feel like it.

This is the way to expand coverage. This is the way to protect children. This is the way to invest in our future. This is the way to do it in a fiscally responsive manner by increasing the cigarette tax. It makes sense on every ground.

The President's suggestion that he is vetoing it has to be something other than common sense. In fact, it strikes me as slightly spiteful. This is something on a bipartisan basis we have done for 10 years; something on a bipartisan basis that we will continue to do. And to be frustrated by a Presidential veto, I think, would add insult to the injury of not having children insured in this country.

I call on the President to reconsider his veto threat. I call on the President to join us in providing health insurance to the children of America, to provide them a foundation for their education, provide them the foundation to proceed forward as good citizens, good workers in the economy, and contributing members. I hope that will happen in the next few days with passage and signature by the President.

I yield the floor.

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