America has the best health care system in the world - for those who can afford it.  But tens of millions of Americans pay too much and get too little from our health care system, and tens of millions more have no health insurance at all.

The problem of working Americans with no health insurance continues to grow.  Nearly 6.5 million people in California are uninsured, and the number increases every year.  In Los Angeles County, more than 2.5 million people are estimated to lack health insurance.  Almost all of these uninsured individuals live in a household with at least one worker, but they are unable to afford insurance and their employers do not offer coverage.  This is wrong and we need to act.

I am working in Congress to enact a package of three bills that would cover more than half of America's 45 million uninsured.  The three bills I am co-sponsoring are targeted to build on programs that already work and ensure that the three fastest-growing segments of the uninsured have access to affordable health coverage:  the near- elderly, low-income working parents, and small business employees.

The Small Business Health Insurance Promotion Act offers small business owners and the self-employed help in securing affordable health insurance.  Under this bill, small businesses or self-employed individuals would become eligible to receive a 50 percent tax credit to help defray the cost of health insurance and provide an incentive for businesses not currently offering coverage to do so.  Over half of America's uninsured workers - more than 13 million people in 2003 - are self-employed or work for a small business with fewer than 50 employees.  Those numbers tell us that small businesses and the self-employed are having a hard time meeting the growing cost of health insurance.  It's about time we did something to help them offer and maintain health insurance as an affordable benefit.

The FamilyCare Act builds on the success of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and Medicaid in insuring children by extending coverage to their low-income working parents.  While SCHIP has helped more and more children obtain health coverage, parents are being left behind.  Also, one of the best ways to find eligible children is to have the entire family enrolled in the same health insurance program.  There are about 7.5 million uninsured parents whose children are eligible for Medicaid and SCHIP.  These parents frequently work part-time or for small businesses, and as a result may not have access to employer-based insurance.  When they do have access, they cannot afford it.  The FamilyCare Act extends eligibility for SCHIP and Medicaid to these low-income working parents.

The Medicare Early Access Act builds on Medicare's long history of providing quality and cost-effective care for aging Americans by giving the millions of uninsured Americans between the ages of 55 and 64 the option to buy into Medicare to obtain their health care.  They would pay a fair premium and would receive all the benefits Medicare beneficiaries enjoy.  This is an important bill because, due in part to outsourcing and layoffs, people ages 55 to 64, are losing health insurance faster than any other group.     

Unfortunately, the Administration's proposals for helping the uninsured center on tax policies and tax shelters that would primarily help people who already have coverage and those with higher incomes, while doing very little to reduce the number of Americans with no health insurance coverage.  According to Professor Kenneth Thorpe of Emory University, the Administration's proposals would reduce the ranks of the uninsured by at most 2.1 million - less than 5 percent of the uninsured.

Instead, we must move forward on the bills outlined here which target our limited resources directly to the largest number of those in need - small businesses and the self-employed, low-income children and their parents, and those near-elderly who have lost employer-provided health insurance and are just shy of Medicare.  Passing these three bills could provide coverage to more than half the nation's 45 million uninsured.

Too many working, uninsured Americans go to bed every night worrying about what will happen to them and their families if a major illness or injury strikes.  This is a national scandal.  The time to act is now.  Let us work together to ensure that all working Americans have access to affordable, quality and reliable health coverage they and their families deserve.

(Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard's office offers a wide variety of services to the community, including financial aid workshops, a service academy workshop, a scholarship directory, a community health fair and constituent casework services to assist district residents in resolving problems with federal agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Social Security Administration.  More information about federal services can be obtained by visiting Congresswoman Roybal-Allard's web site at www.house.gov/roybal-allard or by calling her district office at (213) 628-9230.)