Dan Coats: “I don't know the answer, as to the number of uninsured children, cost policies to insure those children, or the best…”

“I don't know the answer, as to the number of uninsured children, cost policies to insure those children, or the best mechanism to use. Even the charts that the Senator from Utah had designating the number of uninsured children and the charts that the sponsor of the bill, Senator Kennedy from Massachusetts, had at the same time they offered the bill; the two charts were off by several million, in terms of the number of uninsured children. So even the sponsors of the bill hadn't coordinated the numbers or checked with each other relative to how many uninsured children existed. We learned that three-point-some million of the children were covered under the existing Medicaid Program and several million of these children were temporarily uninsured, not full-time uninsured, because their parents were in and out of employment. And, normally, in employment you get a family policy that covers dependents. So I was confused as to what the total number was, how many were insured, and what mechanisms we ought to put in place and, more important, how we ought to derive a number. Obviously, we all want to be responsible with the taxpayers' dollars and, at the same time, provide the important coverage.”