Xavier Becerra: “200 years ago America's children would perish from illnesses that today are easily preventable. We benefit from 21st…”

“200 years ago America's children would perish from illnesses that today are easily preventable. We benefit from 21st century medical advances and the best trained doctors and providers in the world. Yet 2 years ago, 2 years ago, a young boy at the age of 12, not far from this Capitol died after an infection in an abscessed tooth, an infection that spread beyond that tooth to his brain. Because his family did not have the money to remain on Medicaid coverage, and that Medicaid coverage had lapsed, he was unable, his family was unable to afford the $80 it would have cost to extract that tooth. And so 2 years ago, a young man by the name of Diamonte Driver died in America. Today we say this is the 21st century and America understands that no one should die of a preventable disease or illness. We have 11 million children in this country who are still uninsured. Today's legislation will make sure that about half of those kids, about 4 million of those kids will be insured, along with seven other million who today benefit on an ongoing basis from this SCHIP legislation. We know what it was like 200 years ago in America and we know now what it could be like 2 years ago in America. We know that today we must do better for our kids and that is why we pass this legislation today.”