NEWS RELEASE
Committee on Energy and Commerce Democrats
Congressman John D. Dingell, Ranking Member

STATEMENT THE HONORABLE JOHN D. DINGELL

PRESS CONFERENCE ON INTRODUCTION
OF THREE BILLS TO HELP THE UNINSURED

"Approximately one in every seven Americans -- a staggering 43.6 million people overall -- lacked health insurance in 2002 according to the Census Bureau. Given that this country spent 1.6 trillion dollars on healthcare that year, this number of uninsured is something we should not tolerate."

This is National "Cover the Uninsured" Week -- a time to highlight this serious problem and hopefully bring some momentum for solutions. Today, my colleagues Representatives Rangel, Stark, Brown, Sandlin, and I are introducing three bills that together could provide coverage to more than half of all uninsured Americans."

The FamilyCare Act and the Medicare Early Access Act build upon existing successful insurance programs -- Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to offer coverage to families, children, young adults, legal immigrants, and the near elderly. These current programs together cover almost 90 million Americans. Our legislation would extend this coverage to another 16 million or more people."As many of you know, I have championed the FamilyCare Act for a number of years. It is a family-centered bill aimed at providing affordable health insurance for working families -- in particular parents of children enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP. While states have made great strides in providing insurance to children, coverage of their parents lags far behind. In some states up to two-thirds of low-income parents have no health insurance coverage. The FamilyCare Act will also benefit children. Recent research shows that covering families together gets more children enrolled in coverage as well."

The Small Business Health Promotion Act provides incentives for small businesses to offer or maintain health insurance despite the growing costs and lagging economy. It would be a welcome relief for millions of small business owners, as well as the self-employed."These bills do not represent the perfect solution, but would go a long way toward helping the most vulnerable of the uninsured -- and certainly do more for the uninsured than the Republicans' proposals that erode quality coverage rather than promote it."It's time we provided real solutions to this growing crisis in our country. President Bush and his administration claim health care tax credits, deductions, and association health plans are the solution, but these barely scratch the surface of the uninsured problem. The Administration's solution covers only 2.1 million people, a pittance of what one of our bills alone will cover.

I will now recognize my colleagues here to talk in more detail about the Medicare Early Access Act and the Small Business Health Promotion Act."

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