Barbara Mikulski: “I am honored to join the Senate Minority Leader in cosponsoring the Children's Health Coverage Act of 1997. This bill…”

“I am honored to join the Senate Minority Leader in cosponsoring the Children's Health Coverage Act of 1997. This bill will help uninsured working families purchase health insurance for their children and will build on the success of last year's Kassebaum-Kennedy health care reform legislation. It makes the health of all America's children a national priority. It takes the Democratic health care agenda one more step. Our country has failed to meet the health care needs of America's children. The United States has the highest rate of uninsured children of any industrialized country. In my home State of Maryland, nearly 1 in 5 children is uninsured. That's almost 200,000 kids in Maryland alone. This is a disgrace for a country as bountiful as ours is. We say children are our priority. We need to put in the lawbooks the values we hold in our hearts. That makes good policy and good sense. These are the children of working families. Their parents may both be working 40-hour a week jobs. Jobs that put them over the poverty level but offer no benefits. This problem is pervasive. Nine out of ten children without insurance live in families with working parents. Two thirds of uninsured children live in families with incomes above the poverty line. The problem cuts across class and race. As I travel through my own State, working parents tell me how they worry about their children not having health insurance.”