Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009
Floor Speech
CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2009 -- (House of Representatives - January 14, 2009)
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Ms. PELOSI. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California for yielding.
My colleagues, this is a day of triumph for America's children. With what I expect to be a strong bipartisan vote, the House will bring us one step closer to providing health care for 11 million children in America.
With this action and with the legislation last week to ensure equal pay for equal work for women, Congress makes clear that we put women and children first. It is important that we have this legislation up so soon in this new Congress because children are our top priority. We like to be considered a Congress for the children, a Congress for the future.
At a time of economic crisis, nothing could be more essential than ensuring that children of hardworking families receive the quality health care they deserve. Many of these children are from families of hardworking Americans who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. It's sad to say that America lost 2.6 million jobs last year. Over half a million jobs were lost in the month of December--500,000 jobs in the month of December alone. It was actually 526,000 jobs. Each month, until we have an economic recovery initiative, we will continue to lose at least 500,000 jobs per month.
With such job loss, America sees the health care coverage that we all need for our children disappear. For every 1 percent increase in the unemployment rate, it is estimated that as many as 1.5 million Americans will lose their health care coverage. A record 47 million Americans, including nearly 9 million children, are without health insurance now.
Ensuring that children have access to affordable health care just makes sense. It's not just about addressing their health needs when they are sick. It's about keeping them healthy in advance. It's about prevention. It's about diet, not diabetes; it's about prevention, not amputation. It's about a healthier America.
Contrary to the views of some, an emergency room is not good health care on a regular basis. An emergency room is, as it describes, for emergencies--not for ongoing health care. So for those who say that all people in our country have access to health care, that they can go to an emergency room, I don't know what they could be thinking.
By ensuring health care coverage for 11 million children, families will have regular doctor visits and preventative care. We will ensure that children get the care they need and the health care costs are not inflated due to expensive emergency room care.
That is why more than 80 percent of the American people support this legislation. It's bipartisan. It is fully paid for by a 61-cent tax on a pack of cigarettes as the major part of its funding, and it represents a new direction because, again, it is good health care for America's children. It is paid for.
We have fought in the last Congress together, Democrats and Republicans, in the House and in the Senate to pass this legislation--which we did--but it was vetoed. At the time, President Bush said that we could not afford this legislation, that we could not afford to insure America's children. Forty days in Iraq equals over 10 million children in America insured for 1 year. Forty days in Iraq, 1 year insuring over 10 million children. We certainly can afford to do that.
We look forward to bringing this legislation to President Obama's desk as one of the first bills that he will sign. And when we do, we owe a great deal of gratitude to Chairman Henry Waxman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Chairman Rangel of the Ways and Means Committee, Chairman Emeritus John Dingell, who's worked on this issue for a very long time and engineered it through the last Congress. Thank you, Mr. Dingell. Congressman Pallone, the Chair of the subcommittee; Congressman Stark, the Chair of the appropriate Committee on Ways and Means; the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which led the fight to make sure that legal immigrant children are covered under this legislation, and our Congressional Black Caucus. All elements of our Congress, a coalition, and on the outside, because we could not succeed with just our inside maneuvering on legislation so important and so pervasive in its impact.
Without the support of more than 300 organizations, from AARP to the YMCA and everything in between, the March of Dimes, Easter Seals, almost every organization you can name supports this SCHIP; and they support providing quality, affordable health care to America's children, and they support doing it by the passage of the State Children's Health Insurance Program legislation that we have before us today.
So I thank all of those in the Congress for their leadership in making this important day possible for America's children. It's important to children because of their health. It's important because it's paid for. We do something great for children without adding to our deficit and delivering mountains of debt to future generations.
So this, all in all, is great for kids. Let's keep our reputation going as a Congress for children and give a strong bipartisan vote to this important legislation.
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