Hilda L. Solis: “this week marks Cover the Uninsured Week, running from Sunday May 1 through Sunday May 8. I rise today in support of the…”

“this week marks Cover the Uninsured Week, running from Sunday May 1 through Sunday May 8. I rise today in support of the goals of Cover the Uninsured Week. Cover the Uninsured Week will mobilize thousands of business owners, union members, educators, students, patients, hospital staff, physicians, nurses, faith leaders, and many others to call attention to the health care crisis in our country. In hundreds of our communities across the country, events will highlight the fact that too many Americans are living without health care coverage. Today, 45 million Americans live without health care coverage, including 8 million children. As a Californian, I am troubled to learn that California leads the Nation in the number of uninsured people, with 6.5 million people who do not have any form of health care insurance. That is about 18 percent of our population; and additionally, one out of every 5 of our uninsured population in California is a child under the age of 18 years. Uninsured numbers are even worse for the Latino community, which is disproportionately affected by the lack of health care coverage. As a Latina, I am saddened to see that Latinos have the highest uninsured rate of any racial group; and here in this figure, I would like to point out that back in the year 2003, as my colleagues can see, Hispanics represent 34.3 percent of those individuals that are uninsured.…”