Speeches
Pelosi Remarks at Families USA Conference
01/24/2008
Washington, D.C. -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave remarks at the Families USA conference today. Below are her remarks as prepared:
“Thank you Ron Pollack for your kind introduction.
Your leadership and vision have been critical to our efforts to take
“I know many of you have traveled a long way to be a part of
this very important conference: Health Action 2008. I would like to especially acknowledge those
of you here from
“Thank you for the opportunity to join you in honoring
the Frost family. This past September, we all saw the courage the Frost family
had, speaking truth to power to insure 10 million children through SCHIP.
But those bent on thwarting our efforts tried to defame the Frost family
instead of listening to their message.
“Graeme and Gemma advocated for all of
“That health care must translate into a healthier
“In that regard, I am holding ongoing meetings with leaders
from medicine, public policy, grassroots organizing, academia, and the business
community on the subject of health and health care.
“Let me be clear: universal access to affordable health care
is a fundamental right and our overarching principle.
“When we talk about universal access, we must be clear what
we are talking about. The experts agree,
all Americans must have universal access to the best research, quality and
personalized care, and prevention.
“Together, we must create a healthier
“In regard to the significance of biomedical research in
creating a healthier
“This year, we will spend about $5.5 billion on total cancer
research, or the cost of about two weeks of the war in
“Where there is scientific opportunity, we have a moral
responsibility to invest in it. And when
we do so, we have a national responsibility to make its benefits available to
all Americans. This progress belongs to
the American people and Americans all have a right to benefit from it.
“Essential to a healthier
“We also have to make sure the health care field attracts
and retains the finest minds and the most compassionate hearts. We need to support the education of doctors,
nurses and other health professionals with more faculty and coordinated
education across disciplines. Better
teams provide better care.
“To provide quality care, it must be personalized to the
individual. Right now, too many
Americans are being treated with a ‘one size fits all’ approach to
medicine.
“Research tells us that only 42% of Americans with diabetes
receive state of the art treatment. 21%
receive poor treatment and 30% of American with diabetes receive no treatment
at all.
“Of all the women diagnosed with breast cancer, over half
receive some form of chemotherapy, hormonal therapy or both. This treatment is toxic and in some cases
not necessary. By targeting chemotherapy treatment to the 15-30% of women who
will have a recurrence, we will reduce unnecessary exposure to toxicities and
save women from unnecessary suffering.
Personalized care is the wave of the future. The science and technology are there, and by
making it universally available, we are creating a healthier
“Essential to establishing a healthier American is
aggressive community outreach.
“We cannot continue to permit minorities to be more likely than
others to lack health insurance, receive lower-quality care, and suffer from
worse health outcomes. We must reduce
these disparities.
“Today, some 1,100 Community Health Centers have committed
themselves to providing high-quality, affordable primary health care to more
than 16 million people nationwide, regardless of their ability to pay, in more
than 6,000 communities. All are welcomed equally and served with
professionalism and excellence.
“Supporting community health centers and offering loan
forgiveness to encourage doctors to practice in areas that need better medical
care are just two examples of how to reach into communities, but they cannot be
the only ways.
“Our current system of care is based on managing acute
sickness on an episodic basis — a costly and unsustainable approach.
“For a healthier
“A new focus on prevention through Medicare can improve
health for
“We need to transition our places of education,
“A healthier
“This year, Congress will pass the Kennedy-Ramstad mental
health parity bill. It will help ensure
that individuals with mental health illnesses, and addictions are given the
attention, treatment, and resources they need to live a healthy life.
“This is an issue of national importance. In a given year, about one in four adult
Americans suffer from a mental disorder, resulting in 1.3 billion lost days of
work or school. There is more lost
productivity for mental illness than arthritis, stroke, heart attack and cancer
combined.
“If we insure mental illness like any other medical disease,
Americans will get the lifesaving treatment they need.
“This will be especially important to our returning veterans
from
“With our brave men and women in uniform first in mind, this
year we added $6.6 billion to our veterans health budget – the largest increase
in the 77 year history of the VA.
“Now I will end where I began – with our efforts to insure
10 million American children through SCHIP.
“As recently as yesterday, even with the bipartisan
coalitions you helped to build, we couldn’t override the opposition of the
President. To make matters worse, he has
unilaterally, by executive order, issued directives that will make it even harder
for children to be insured.
“The choice couldn’t be clearer: for the cost of 40 days in
“This fight is not over.
We will never give up until every eligible child is insured through
SCHIP.
“It is as Speaker, and as a mother, that I come here today
to join you in demanding a healthier
“We have millions of health care providers in
“Families know that a healthier
“And families know that a healthier
“Above all, Families USA knows. Thank you Ron Pollack! Thank you Families USA!”