Congressman Elijah E. Cummings Proudly Representing Maryland's 7th District

Healthcare is a Human Right

October 5, 2006

Baltimore Medical System (BMS) St. Agnes Hospital Open House

Baltimore, Maryland

Thank you, [President] Jay [Wolvovsky], for your kind introduction

And thank you, President [Connie] Phipps, for all that St. Agnes Hospital is doing for the well-being of our community..

Good afternoon, everyone.

I am honored to join you here at St. Agnes today as we celebrate a very important partnership.

The health care professionals who are the foundation of Baltimore Medical System's Federally Qualified Health Centers have joined hands with St. Agnes Hospital.

In so doing, my friends, you have taken our community a step closer to that day when every resident will be guaranteed affordable, high-quality health care.

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I. THANK YOU.

Ladies and gentlemen, I just stopped by to thank you.

Where would we be without you?

Who would care for the nearly one in every three of your patients who have no health insurance?

They - and our community - would be in big trouble.

That is where we would be.

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You are doing so much for our community - for our children and our seniors, for expectant mothers and so many others in need.

You are important - each and every one of you.

Federally-Qualified Health Centers have earned the support of Democrats and Republicans alike.

This bipartisan support is strong - both in Annapolis and where I work in Washington, D.C.

That is why I am so honored to be co-sponsoring the Health Centers Renewal Act of 2006 (H.R. 5201 - and S.3771).

And that is why, even during difficult economic times, I am confident that we will be able to increase federal funding for our Federally Qualified Health Centers (our FQHCs) to nearly $2 Billion this year.

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Fiends, we are committed to supporting you - even as you support the health and the humanity of our community.

Each year, our FQHCs serve over 160,000 patients here in the State of Maryland.

And Baltimore Medical Systems is helping more than 40,000 of those patients - one in every four.

This new partnership between BMS and St. Agnes will expand this service to our community even more.

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II. HEALTHCARE MUST BECOME A CIVIL RIGHT

You have earned our gratitude and our support, ladies and gentlemen.

I applaud you. You are doing your part - every day - to make this a better world.

You exemplify both conscience and competence - and you make all of us who support you proud.

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Ladies and gentlemen - with your permission, I will take a few moments to place what you are doing for our community in perspective.

I mentioned how there is substantial bipartisan support for our Federally Qualified Health Centers.

I applaud my colleagues on both sides of the political aisle for that.

But we must do more.

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We must keep up the pressure for universal health care in this country.

You know - even better than I - that we are facing a health care crisis.

We must all speak out about a health care system which denies tens of millions of Americans full access to affordable, high quality care.

We must continue to demand a public health care policy which values human life over profit.

At the national level, big issues demand big ideas for their solution - like Social Security and the G.I. Bill.

I have been working on these health care issues for quite a while now.

And I am convinced that the acceptance of universal health care as a fundamental civil right is a big idea whose time has ALMOST come.

A growing number of Americans are beginning to ask the right questions.

Why, for example, is the United States the only industrialized country that does not have a health insurance system that covers everyone?

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Wealth should not be a pre-condition to world-class health care in any society that truly values all of its people.

Consider this:

Most Americans are familiar with the census figures that have identified more than 40 million Americans who lack health insurance coverage.

However, health organizations like Families USA have been making the case that the scope of this national insurance challenge is even more staggering.

∙ Families USA has reported that nearly 82 million people under the age of 65 (fully one-third of all working-age Americans) were without health insurance for all or part of 2002 and 2003.

∙ And more than two-thirds were uninsured for more than six months.

Four out of five of these uninsured Americans belong to families in which at least one adult is employed.

Their employers either do not offer employee health plans or the insurance premiums and other costs that the employees are expected to cover are too expensive for their family budgets.

Ladies and gentlemen, when 64 million working Americans are uninsured for substantial periods of each year, that is more than a serious "problem."

Our outdated strategy for providing affordable health care is in the midst of a "crisis."

And this crisis is getting worse.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tell the Congress that the percentage of working age adults without insurance coverage is actually increasing. The reasons are complex, but this much is clear.

∙ Too many Americans are working at low-paid or part-time jobs that do not provide health insurance coverage..

∙ Insurance costs are increasing - and those employers who do offer coverage are attempting to shift more and more of those costs onto their employees.

∙ We also know that those areas of our economy in which any job growth is occurring are about 10 percent less likely to provide health care coverage than those in which the number of available jobs is shrinking.

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The human consequences of having tens of millions of Americans uninsured are appalling.

∙ Necessary medical treatment is being delayed too long or altogether.

∙ And the American people as a whole are incurring increased health care costs because of these delays.

∙ Most appalling of all - far too many Americans are dying before their time.

Ladies and gentlemen, the implications are clear.

Our employment-based health insurance system is broken.

It must be reformed or replaced..

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We all have a personal interest in overcoming this threat.

There is no human right more fundamental than the preservation of life.

And uninsured threats to the lives of 64 million Americans constitute a civil rights challenge of the most compelling urgency.

There has to be a better way to assure universal, high quality care.

And I am convinced that there is.

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I am certain that you have been following the movement in Massachusetts to assure health care for all the people of that state.

The Massachusetts Plan may serve as a model for where the entire nation must head.

I strongly support expansion of our Children's Health Insurance Program.

But SCHIP (MCHIP here in Maryland) is only the first step.

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At the federal level, I have joined Michigan Congressman John Conyers and others in proposing the United States National Health Insurance Act (H.R. 676).

Our proposal would create a nation-wide, single-payer health care system that is PUBLICLY FINANCED BUT PROVIDES PRIVATE CARE.

∙ We would expand and improve the existing Medicare program to cover Americans of all ages.

∙ Under our plan, Americans would retain (or regain) the right to choose their own doctors.

∙ Other health care professionals and all medically-necessary services would be covered.

∙ There would be no co-pays nor deductibles.

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Let's be clear. The price tag would be substantial.

Many experts, however, have confirmed that we may actually be able to reduce this nation's health care bill by two strategic actions:

- by sharply reducing the administrative costs and profits that now dominate many private health insurance plans, and

- through the negotiation of reasonable rates for care and prescription drugs.

Now, I should share with you that we do not realistically expect that the Administration and its allies in the current congressional leadership will allow serious consideration of our proposal.

They did not allow us an up or down vote during the last Congress.

There is no indication that their perspective has changed.

It is up to us, ladies and gentlemen, to change that equation.

∙ We must not allow the sick and dying Americans in our communities to be marginalized.

∙ We must make common cause with all of the Americans who simply want the care that they need at a cost that they can afford.

We must be clear in our assertion that health care is a fundamental human right - whatever may be the color of a person's skin.

Now is the time to create a health care system that truly serves ALL Americans, my friends. Now is the time for America to transform our human right to health care into a civil right guaranteed - and funded - by federal law.

CLOSING

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your humanity and your leadership

I will close with these words.

Noted religious scholar, Dr. Charles Swindoll, demonstrated great insight when he wrote that

"...[M]en and women of God,
servant-leaders in the making,
are first
unknown,
unseen,
unappreciated and
unapplauded.

In the relentless demands of obscurity,
C haracter is built....
[T]hose who first accept the silence of obscurity
are best qualified to handle
the applause of popularity."

Friends, I am honored to be here to applaud each and every one of you today.

On behalf of a grateful community - Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.