Date: 2010-06-14
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

I thank my colleague from Ohio very much. and I am delighted to be able to join her. and as well my chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus and other Members who I know have a great interest in this area of reminding the American people of the great strides that we have made in the passing of this outstanding new attitude for health care in America. It is long overdue. and it was an enormous struggle. I can remember that weekend of March 2010 and the week that led up to it and the days that we stayed over on Saturday to gather our resources and to continue to work and to push. working and ensuring that the Senate would bring the bill over to the House so on that Sunday. we could cast a vote for what has to be a monumental change in American life and will go down as a monumental move in American history. Just a few minutes ago. I had the privilege of listening to our Secretary of Agriculture. Secretary Vilsack. and he reminded us of how diverse America is. Rural America. for example. with all of its needs and all of its specialnessof course. just on the floor of the House. we stood in silence to acknowledge the loss of lives in rural Arkansas in a terrible flooding. And then he expressed the inequity in terms of poverty in some of our rural communities and the need for investment in that community. And I would venture to say that alongside of that investment. this health care bill. which as our chairwoman just said. it is not respective of region or what party youre in or who represents your district. you will have access to health care. That means that many of the rural Americans. some of whom scratch their survival out of the earth. some of whom are still tenant farmers. some may have small family farms. and many of them have sacrificed to invest in those farms and have probably ignored the need for health care because of the cost. Now we have that opportunity to ensure that those Americans. hardworking Americans who put bread on our table. have the ability to provide for their family. The Secretary made mention of the fact of the First Ladys commitment to. in essence. stamping out obesity. particularly in our children. This health care bill provides for preventative measures. preventative care. and a focus on nutrition and an emphasis on helping children. something long overdue. And it compliments the First Ladys effort and the Secretary of Agricultures acknowledging that we must have healthy foods. for example. in our school cafeterias to make healthy children. But at the same time. it is important to note that that child who may be obese as we speak should have access to some form of health care. Now. with the passage of this health care bill. that child will have that opportunity to have a better life. a healthier life. to have a nutrition planwe dont like to call plans for children diets. but a good healthy nutrition plan that can be governed by their family practitioner now or their pediatrician. to which they will have access. either through the National Exchange or through health care that now this family farm or their family can purchase. Just a week or so ago. during Memorial Day week. I had the privilege of announcing a $1 million grant that was to allow an inner city hospitalthe only African American hospital in the State of Texas. and one of very few in the Nationto receive a grant to servicemembers and their families. active duty servicemembers and their families for PTSD. posttraumatic stress disorder. We know that is a prominent and prevalent condition that many of our soldiers are coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan and have been impacted by that. But what about mental health and the need for mental health care across America that people who have had mental health concerns have literally suffered because we never had parity in our health care insurance coverage? It has never been required federally until recently. The legislation. of course. shepherded by the late Senator Ted Kennedy. and our friend and colleague. his son. PATRICK KENNEDY. But for so many years. we did not have mental parity. insurance companies could ignore it. Just think if you would ignore the servicemen and their families who are impacted by posttraumatic stress disorder. Well. many Americans feel isolated with mental health concerns and not being able to access good care. This health care bill turns a corner on mental health care. and I want to say to the American public that physical illness has no position to be raised up over a mental health condition. There should be no stigma. and you should have access to as good a care for a physical ailment. a broken arm. an upset stomach. diabetes. kidney disease. terrible diseases. of course. but you should equally have access to mental health care. Well. this health care bill allows that to happen. and I think that that is a step forward for the American people. Its good to note that families who have raised children who are now entering the work world or looking for work and coming out of college. used to be an enormous burden of. how do I care for my child when they have aged out of my insurance? Well. now we have the opportunity for them to remain on the insurance until 26. But let me give an admonitionand I think this is going to be important for the Congress to do. In the legislation. there are several oversight provisions in the billin fact. our own Congressional Black Caucus. working with Congresswoman EDWARDS and some others. were very insistent on making sure that the raising of the cost did not inappropriately or unfairly burden middle class. upper middle class Americans. just by the nature of who it falls on. But the other aspect of it is. the rumor is that if insurance companies are required to keep children on until theyre 26. that ugly word of "increased cost" is going to rise. What I would say is that we need to pay attention to the actuarial tables and the database that suggest how many times a 26yearold or under utilizes health care and not let insurance companies just willynilly on their own regard. on their own basis make the determination. well. theyre giving me something to do. Im going to raise the cost. because thats what people are afraid of. We have to say to the American public. were going to be your watchdog in the United States Congress and ensure that that doesnt happen. Let me also take note of the federally qualified health care clinic. Im excited about that. I debated this some years before when we were talking about trying to put more funding into the legislation to increase the number of federally qualified health clinics even before this health care bill because for a long time. these clinics were not even known about. But the idea to be able to walk out your front door and walk down your block and go to a health care facility that is not an emergency room will make an enormous difference on the healthiness of Americans. preventative care. Right now I am. in my community. assessing different locations in my congressional district that a federally qualified health clinic would be suitable. the population. the partnership. 501(C)(3)s. and petitioners who would want that to be in their neighborhood. Im excited about it. And Im excited about the Martin Luther King Center. That is a health clinic that I helped fund so many years ago when their doors were about to close. They are not only open today. but they have sprung two more Federally qualified clinics in order to be able to serve the public. This is a good investment. As was indicated earlier. our small businesses will finally be able to spell the word relief. relief. They will be able to say. I will be able to not only pay for the owners. but my employees will be able to get insurance. and that is a great mechanism. And we should not let anyone. in essence. dump on our parade. We should not let anyone miscalculate or mischaracterize. if you will. how much of an impact the small business tax exemption will be for those small businesses to allow them to be able to provide health insurance for their employees. Small businesses are the backbone of America. They are probably the largest employers of the American economy. They want to provide insurance for those mothers and fathers who work for them every day. who are committed and dedicatedsometimes they are mothers and fathers with family businessesand now they will be able to do so. and I believe that is very important. The doughnut hole was the most horrific vote that was taken here in the United States Congress some years ago. which was for Medicare part D. We lasted on the floor of the House until 6 oclock because our friends on the other side of the aisle could not get a vote until they squeezed it out of some of our colleagues. It was horrific. For those who dont understand it. it means that you pay for your prescription drugs. which are going through the roof. until you. as a senior. fall in the hole because youve gotten a catastrophic illness. and they will wind up paying for you. What an atrocity. Were going to close that hole in the next 2 years. As well. right now. seniors should be receiving $250 checks in their hands. We recognize the undermining of your health care because of Medicare part D. First of all. it was unrealistically expensive. and certainly. it was a plan that we Democrats have indicated was a wrongheaded decision. Obviously. we have been proven right. Part of our deficit. which was spoken so loudly about by the other side of the aisle. was caused by Medicare part D. and the large majority of our party. our caucus. voted against it. Really. it was a wrongheaded direction to take. Here is another negative that the naysayers would say: well. you can hardly get into doctors offices today. How are you going to get into their offices now? Theyre standing in line. Im afraid that Im not going to be able to see a doctor. They were scaring seniors with that kind of information. Well. I think that when people are inclined to serve. there is a great deal of love and affection for the medical profession. Yet one of the reasons we dont have the numbers is that we have not been able to give people opportunities. It is very expensive training. so we will be engaged in providing resources to train nurses. nurse practitioners. and physicians. We will actually have resources to give young people who want to go into that profession. I spoke at the High School for Health Professions in my district. They have a diverse student body. but many of them are not going into the health profession. Yet many are. and more would if they had the resources to do so. So we are excited about that. As I focus on closing on some of these points. let me quickly bring something in that you might not think is related to the health care bill. but it is. The BP oil spill is plaguing the gulf coast. More importantly. there is human devastation. if you will. There is the devastation of not working in the shrimping. fishing and oyster industries. There are some energy industry workers who are now not working as well. All of those individuals were probably living off their salaries or off the revenue that they brought in day to day and month to month. I would imagine that some of those individuals did not have health insurance. They might have even been paying a fee for service because they made choices of putting money into businesses as opposed to into health care. Well. now we have an opportunity for these individuals. if they are at risk. to either go into a highrisk pool or to prospectively be able to go into a health exchange to be able to get the most costeffective health insurance that they might be able to get. With that in mind. I would like to indict. if you will. those States for refusing to get into the health exchange program. like my State. which has the highest number of uninsured. as evidenced by Dr. Oz. who came to Houston. but also as evidenced by the data that says that Texas needs opportunities for people to be insured. So I would hope that we would have the kind of energy and excitement around this idea of the health exchange so that States would have to engage in it because the people would rise up and would say that they wanted it. Of course. under this bill. hospitals which have been facing increasing costs with no compensation now will have the opportunity to be paid for uncompensated care. We hope those numbers will go down now because. obviously. if they go down. it will mean more people will have gotten their own insurance. but just in case. these hospitals will have that. I want to close on these last two points which I think are unique to the Congressional Black Caucus. One is to express great applause to the CBC Health Care Task Force with Dr. DONNA CHRISTENSEN and to the TriCaucus health effort. because out of that effort came the very important language on disparities or on the continuing work on disparities that we see amongst our minority population. such as with regard to diabetes. kidney failure. heart failure. and such as with regard to devastating breast cancer. These are elements that are clearly as a result of disparities that were not addressed. and I think we will see more opportunities for clinicals where minorities will be used so we will be able to find causes and will begin to find cures for some of these devastating diseases in the minority community. Lastly. our work is yet unfinished. I worked very hard on the issue of physicianowned hospitals. Many of us thought that the passage of the bill was worthy of our looking down the road and of our making sure that we would cure that problem. It is a serious problem because these hospitals were stigmatized as hospitals that were all forprofit and not for service. I know for a fact that the hospitals that are in the State of Texas which hire or which have at least 40.000plus employees are serving their constituents with OB/ GYN and with full service care. One of the hospitals in my district was the only hospital that had a wing dedicated to HINI when it was rampant here in the United States. I am looking forward to the leaders of these hospitals having the opportunity to come back to Washington to sit down with our leadership and to talk about making sure that these hospitals are not discriminated against as it relates to Medicare reimbursement. Some language allows that to happen in the bill. but it is a very peculiar formula that may not match all of the needs of the constituents who need to be taken care of by these hospitals. So I thank the distinguished gentlelady from Ohio for her constant leadership. She has a great medical community in Cleveland. a community that certainly was engaged in this process of putting together this very. very strong health care reform bill. historic in its own efforts. and I thank her for her leadership. My final words are: it is never easy to make hard decisions. We said that as we debated and as we compared this to the 1964 Civil Rights Act and to the 1965 Voting Rights Act. There were many in their home districts who threatened them for taking that vote. Where would America be today if we had not taken the strides to break down the shackles of discrimination to allow all Americans to vote? I hope and I pray and I believe that we will have the same opportunity to look back on history in 2010 and will be able to say how we have changed the lives of Americans and how we have saved the lives of Americans. With that. I yield back to the gentlelady. and I thank her again for her leadership.