Lisa Murkowski: “this week, the first week of May, is National Cover the Uninsured Week. Now in its fourth year, it is the largest…”

“this week, the first week of May, is National Cover the Uninsured Week. Now in its fourth year, it is the largest nonpartisan effort in our Nation's history to raise awareness on the staggering numbers of Americans who do not have health insurance. Forty-six million Americans have no health insurance--including more than 8 million children. In Alaska, 110,000 people do not have health insurance--that is nearly 17 percent of our population. One-half of Alaska's uninsured live in a household with a least one child. Being uninsured too often means going without needed care--and minor illnesses can become major ones simply because health care is delayed. Over a third of Alaska's uninsured reported that they didn't seek medical care for themselves or their family when it was needed. Why? Because they couldn't afford it. An estimated 18,000 uninsured Americans die each year because they received too little care, too late. Most of these individuals and families are hard-working Americans-- just making it from paycheck to paycheck. In fact, 8 out of 10 of uninsured Americans either work or are in working families. To help those working families, I join Senator Santorum and Senator Dole in introducing the Helping Working Americans Afford Health Coverage Act of 2006. The goal of this bill is to make health coverage more affordable and accessible to the working populations with the greatest needs.…”