Congressman Tom Price Radio Address
  September 28, 2007

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TRANSCRIPT:

Hello, I’m Congressman Tom Price, and I have the honor of representing the great people of the Sixth District of Georgia.  Before coming to Congress, I was a physician for over 25 years.
 
This week, the House of Representatives engaged in a historic debate over the future of health care in our country and what should have been a proposal to extend affordable coverage for low-income children.
 
The State Children's Health Insurance Program, commonly known as SCHIP, has been widely popular, and both parties are eager to renew this critical initiative. 

Unfortunately, Democrats in Congress are attempting to use this important program as a vehicle to advance their desire for Washington-controlled, bureaucratic, government-run health care.
 
SCHIP was created a decade ago in a truly bipartisan manner by a Republican Congress and a Democrat President. The program offers states federal tax dollars to provide health insurance to children in households which do not qualify for Medicaid, but cannot afford private coverage.  However, the bill Washington Democrats passed this week expands SCHIP far beyond the program’s original bipartisan intent and that’s where the problem lies.
 
This Washington Democrat expansion offers taxpayer funded health care to those in households with ample means to afford it and even up to 21 year-old adults. 
 
Any honest discussion about this proposal reveals that it's really not about needy kids, but rather a thinly veiled push for greater Washington-control over personal health coverage.
 
A recent Congressional Budget Office study revealed that more than three-fourths of children affected by this expansion already have personal, private health insurance.  Expanding income eligibility for SCHIP, as this proposal does, will serve as a taxpayer-funded substitute to these personal insurance plans, resulting in millions of children leaving the private sector for the taxpayer rolls.
 
Washington Democrats have made it clear that this debate is just the next step in their march toward federal control of health care. They believe that medical decisions are best placed in the hands of Washington bureaucrats, rather than in those of families and doctors.  As a physician, I know how extremely dangerous this can be.  When Washington has more control over medical care, patients and their doctors have less. 
 
When presented this proposal, the President should reject it and the Congress should vote to sustain his veto. This would allow us to forge a positive bipartisan solution that will provide full funding for SCHIP as it was meant to be – covering the children in our nation who need it most.
 
Thank you for listening, and God Bless America.