Darlene Hooley: “It is alarming, the number of children in this country who do not have any health care. Again, it is over 10 million…”

“It is alarming, the number of children in this country who do not have any health care. Again, it is over 10 million children with no health care. Every minute, every minute, three children lose their health care coverage. By the year 2000 if nothing changes, as many as 12.6 million kids will have to depend on an emergency room as opposed to a family physician. Let me try to tell the Members what that means for our kids. Most of the uninsured children are at risk for preventable illnesses. For example, one in two uninsured children who have asthma do not visit the doctor during the year. As a consequence, these kids end up in the hospital with problems that could have been prevented with proper care. All we need to do is look at the kids that are uninsured who have ear infections, a very common problem for kids. One in three never see a doctor, and many end up with permanent hearing loss. It is situations like these that make me think about the parents who lay awake each night wondering what they can do when their kids get sick. There is no instinct as basic as that instinct to protect one's children and care for one's children. Today there are too many parents in America who cannot act on that instinct. The real tragedy of the situation is that these are parents who play by the rules.”