Frank Pallone: “You know, when you relate your own experiences, I can relate so much to it myself. I have to say, I was thinking back…”

“You know, when you relate your own experiences, I can relate so much to it myself. I have to say, I was thinking back about 10 years ago when we first started the program. Of course, my wife and I were just starting to have kids. My oldest daughter now is 13, so she was three at the time. And I guess I had my son at the time, he was only one. And we were starting to realize at the time about the fact that, first of all, as parents, the idea of kids not having health insurance, you know, young kids at that age was really an awful thing. And that's why we got involved. I say 'we' because my wife got involved in the whole issue as well. And to think about the fact that you have children and they can't have health insurance or you have to take them to an emergency room is just an awful thing. I worry myself even now because a lot of times your health insurance doesn't cover everything. Like I was faced with the orthodontist bill a couple years ago. And I suddenly realized our insurance doesn't cover orthodontistry. And that was upsetting, but to think of parents that can't even take their kids to the doctor is just an awful thing. One of the things that my wife would always say to me that she observed was that many times government officials, and I don't want to speak about ourselves because I don't want to be critical, but a lot of times politicians don't think about kids because of the fact that they don't vote.”