Of all the issues that Congress considers, one that resonates the greatest with the American public is health care. Receiving quality medical attention without breaking the bank is the desire of most Americans, and working to improve the system of health care delivery in this country is the goal of many members of Congress, including myself.
In order to determine the best health care policy, it’s important to understand where we stand as a nation in terms of coverage. The U.S. Census Bureau recently released a report titled Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2005. This report found that 84.1 percent of the U.S. population, amounting to 247.3 million Americans, have the critical insurance coverage to help pay for care when they are sick or hurt. That's an increase of 1.4 million people since last year's report and it marks a new national peak for health care coverage. It is also notable that America remains well below the record-high of 16.3 percent of Americans lacking insurance that was achieved during the Clinton Administration.
As the Census Bureau's report indicates, the group most likely to be without health insurance in America is, in fact, not American at all. The bureau reports that 43.6 percent of non-citizens lack insurance, and that is both far too many and hardly surprising. Non-citizens swell the ranks of the uninsured dramatically when they arrive in America with hopes and dreams, but without insurance. By contrast, 82.1 percent of naturalized citizens are insured, and for native-born Americans, the insurance rate is even higher at 86.6 percent.
The bottom line is this: More people in America have health coverage today than at any time in our nation's history. While that's a fact worth celebrating, there is work to do to expand coverage to more people.
Some will say that the only thing to do is put everybody on Medicaid, or something like it. Medicaid is a valuable welfare program for the poor who can't afford any sort of health insurance, but I don't think America is going to be happier or healthier with everyone on welfare.
I want more freedom and less government in health insurance. One good step we can take is to pass the Health Care Choice Act (H.R. 2355), which was introduced by U.S. Rep. John Shadegg of Arizona. When government regulations force many to skip coverage altogether by requiring them to buy gold-plated insurance or nothing at all, something's wrong. Plenty of working families may simply not want coverage for acupuncture, massage therapy and other kinds of care that their states mandate. The Health Care Choice Act will remedy that problem by taking the decision out of the hands of lobbyists, special interests and bureaucrats and putting it into the hands of working families.
The news that health care coverage in the United States has increased is very encouraging, but we can’t stop there. It is time for Congress to take action and pass measures such as the Health Care Choice Act that will help Americans obtain quality health insurance.
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