Universal Health Care

UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE -- (House of Representatives - June 10, 2008)

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Mr. COHEN. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

It is indeed an honor to join with the previous speakers and you, Madam Speaker, to speak on this subject that you and Chairman Conyers and others have brought to this fight.

It has been a long fight. Chairman Conyers and Mr. Dingell and Mr. Dingell's father I think have had sponsorship of issues such as this since the 1940s, 60-some-odd years of efforts and introduction of legislation and debate and discussion, but no bill yet. But we've come a long way. We've come a long way since the 1940s.

Madam Speaker talked about the individuals who suffer from cancer and should not have lost their lives because we didn't have adequate research. I have penned a letter to the Speaker and to Chairman Obey, who I know are concerned about this issue, asking that we increase NIH funding in the President's 2009 budget for research on cancer, diabetes, heart disease, AIDS, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's disease so that we double the amount that we had in the budget as requested by Congress.

In the President's fiscal year 2009 budget, the request for research at the National Institute of Health for cancer, diabetes, heart disease, HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's, this could be doubled, and only a day or so's worth of money that we use for our war efforts would have to be transferred to make this available.

You know, I think about what the Speaker was talking about, the loss of lives, and I had to think about Senator Kennedy. Not that one life is greater than another life. But Senator Kennedy is a colleague who has been in this hall and is fighting cancer. We hope he will have a successful fight. But when we see him struck with cancer, and others--and we know there are people dying every day of cancer--it just seems to me that it's a shame that we don't put more and more money into saving lives and we don't use the great wealth of this Nation, the intelligence of this Nation, the great scientific powers of this country to invest in medical research in saving lives rather than weapons of mass destruction often brought to us by people who benefit from them and have brought the military industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned us about, even President Nixon had concerns about; and that helped take us from 9/11 into an escalating budget expense of military weapons that caused this country's budget to be spent so much and its great talent and abilities in a scientific way to be used on weapons of mass destruction and other arms of the military industrial complex rather than science and research to save lives and save humanity.

Who knows which person, which young person or older person, could do something to save other people's lives let alone give love and hope to families?

And so with national health care insurance, we could cover people, we could save lives because if we had insurance for the people, you could scope out illnesses earlier whether you're wealthy or poor. You would have the same opportunity to have preventative care, early treatment, and diagnosis of illnesses that can cause loss of life. And that early detection can save lives.

Right now if you're poor, you don't have the opportunity to have that early detection and your life is taken. And that's an inequity that this country should not allow to continue and shouldn't have permitted for all of these years.

There are so many accomplishments that we have seen in this country, particularly in this year. We've seen our Nation become a more perfect union in so many ways. But the fundamental right to health care is one that we have not recognized yet and we must.

We're all here because of the grace of God, and it seems like we should all have the--at our access and at our disposal what God's creatures have been able to discover, refine, produce, in the way of medical care to keep people alive. That just seems like a minimum thing.

And this country is the only great industrialized country on the face of the earth without some national health care policy. It seems like in this area, we are not the first in the Nation, in the world, but we're last in the world. And that's terrible.

There are doctors that serve in this body, and they're to be admired for giving their time. And I'm sure--I have many friends who are doctors who give a lot of charity care. But it shouldn't have to be doctors providing charity care to treat people that otherwise wouldn't be treated. It should be something that we all give. And I think that that's the real social need in this country. And when people talk about values and social consciousness and really religious thought and caring about others, it really begins with caring about people's health and sacrificing maybe some of our own resources to have a government system that can help others with their health care.

So I'm pleased, Madam Speaker, to speak as I have. You have inspired me with your remarks, the letters you read; and I'm just pleased that Chairman Conyers has this issue before us.

Madam Speaker, I enter the following for the Record.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
H-232, U.S. Capitol,
Washington, DC.
Chairman David Obey,
Committee on Appropriations, H-218, U.S. Capitol, Washington, DC.

DEAR SPEAKER PELOSI AND CHAIRMAN OBEY: I am writing to request that NIH funding in the President's FY09 budget for the research of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, AIDS, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease be doubled in the final FY09 budget set forth by Congress.

The following are the estimates included in the President's FY09 Budget request at the National Institutes of Health (NIH): Cancer: $5.654B; Diabetes: $1.033B; Heart Disease: $2.111B; Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis under National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases: $300M; Alzheimer's Disease: $644M; Parkinson's Disease: $186M.

These debilitating diseases affect millions of people each year across the globe. Families are torn apart, emotionally and financially, by the effects of their contraction. Congress has a serious responsibility to provide adequate funding for research that could not only find promising treatments, but permanent cures.

I cannot imagine a more pressing issue than ensuring the healthy future of those we are here to represent. The disparity between the amounts of funding requested for the war in Iraq and that requested to treat deadly diseases is incomprehensible. The successful findings of research programs made possible through increased funding will not only aid people in the United States, but the rest of the world, as well. It is my hope that, by taking full advantage of the scientific resources we have here at home, we can better our relationships with research teams across the globe to reach our common goals: finding a cure and establishing peace.

As always, I remain,

Most Sincerely,

Steve Cohen,
Member of Congress

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