Congressman Dingell believes that health care should be a right, not a privilege. As the Dean of the House and the Chairman Emeritus of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, Congressman Dingell will be leading health care reform efforts during the 111th Congress. Congressman Dingell has long been an advocate for quality, affordable health care for all Americans. Right now, Congressman Dingell is working with his Democratic colleagues on "An American Solution" - providing quality, affordable health care to all Americans. The discussion draft of that legislation is now being reviewed by fellow House Members. The final version of the House health care reform bill would bear the Dingell name as a tribute to him and his father, Congressman John Dingell, Sr., who also fought for universal health care during his 23 years as a Member of Congress. He has also introduced H.R. 15, the National Health Insurance Act, which would provide universal health care for all Americans, during each of his terms in Congress going back to 1957.

In the United States, more than 47 million people, including close to 9 million children, are currently living without even the most basic health care services. In the world’s richest country, this is an embarrassment. The cost of health care is not just detrimental to those without coverage; it is a hidden tax on society, in the form of costly emergency room visits and hospital bills and decreased productivity or slower learning due to absenteeism from work or school.

Congressman John D. Dingell introduces Medicare Rx Drug Bill to Give Seniors Affordable Drug Coverage

Moreover, this hidden tax is hurting US competitiveness around the world. US companies are faced with a significant disadvantage due to the costs they pay for their employees’ healthcare. For example, for each car manufactured, US automakers spend twice as much on healthcare than on steel.

We must ensure that coverage is affordable for everyone, including our poor and elderly populations. The system must also afford quality care for everyone.  Gender, ethnicity, region, or place of residence should no longer impact the quality of care one receives. For more details, click here to listen to Congressman Dingell’s address to the National Governors Association on February 22, 2009.

SCHIP
In addition to focusing on health care reform, Congressman Dingell was pleased to be present when President Obama signed the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) reauthorization on January 14, 2009, which ensured 11 million children will receive health care coverage. As you may know, SCHIP was created in 1997 to provide health care coverage for children in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to afford private insurance, and has proved a successful and cost-effective program for providing health care for uninsured kids. The Congressman helped write the original SCHIP legislation and the reauthorization in 2009. Michigan’s own MIChild served 114,025 children during fiscal year (FY) 2007 and with the reauthorization allow access for an estimated additional 80,000 children going forward.

The SCHIP reauthorization provides resources for states to reach uninsured children who are today eligible for SCHIP and Medicaid but not yet enrolled and improves benefits under the program, ensuring dental coverage and mental health parity. Additionally, this bill fully pays for itself by increasing the tobacco tax by 61 cents and achieving savings by imposing restrictions on self-referral to physician-owned hospitals.

Food Safety
The Congressman feels people have reason to be angry about the quality of our nation’s food supply. As evident by the recent salmonella case, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is fundamentally unable to ensure the safety of our nation's food products, and Americans have paid a terrible price for it. That is why Congressman Dingell introduced the Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act of 2009. This legislation is a critical step toward equipping the FDA with the authorities and funding it needs to regulate what is now a global marketplace for food, drugs, devices, and cosmetics.

Our current food safety system is broken, as evident by a recent outbreak of salmonella that killed eight and sickened more than 600 people after eating contaminated peanut products. That is why Congressman Dingell introduced H.R. 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act, which will provide the FDA the necessary authorities and resources needed to adequately protect the Nation’s food supply.  With bipartisan support, the Committee on Energy and Commerce unanimously approved the bill in June and it is now headed to the House floor.

The legislation requires foreign and domestic food facilities to have safety plans in place to prevent food hazards before they occur, increases the frequency of inspections. Additionally, it provides strong, flexible enforcement tools, including mandatory recall. Most importantly, this bill generates the resources to support FDA food safety activities.

Investing in our future
Affordable and quality health care is key to strong economic growth. As such, Congressman Dingell was supportive of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which will lower health care costs and ensure broader coverage.

The Act will bring our health care system into the 21st century with information technology, which will save billions of dollars, and are taking key steps to ensure broader coverage in this recession.

The Act will protect health care coverage for millions through Medicaid by providing an estimated $87 billion over the next two years in additional federal matching funds to help states maintain their Medicaid programs in the face of massive state budget shortfalls. It also helps states avoid having families lose Medicaid coverage and scaling back the health care services provided during these difficult times.

The Act will provide health insurance for unemployed workers. Currently, laid-off workers, under the COBRA program, can buy into their former employer’s health insurance. But the premiums are often prohibitively expensive. In order to help people maintain their health coverage, the bill provides a 65% subsidy for COBRA premiums for up to 9 months for workers affected by the recession.

Additionally, the bill invests $1 billion in prevention and $1.1 billion in comparative effectiveness research.