THE HEALTHY KIDS 2000 ACT -- HON. JO ANN EMERSON (Extensions of Remarks - March 11, 1999)

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HON. JO ANN EMERSON OF MISSOURI IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 1999

Mrs. EMERSON. Mr. Speaker, today I join my colleague, Senator KIT BOND, in introducing legislation that addresses one of the greatest challenges of our Nation: assuring quality health care for pregnant women and appropriate pediatric care for infants. Our bill, the Healthy Kids 2000 Act, builds upon the Birth Defects Prevention Act signed into law last April, by consolidating programs and providing more funds for local initiatives to prevent birth defects and maternal mortality.

The idea behind our proposal is simple: we want pregnant women to be healthy, and we want children to be healthy. To accomplish this, we must remove some of the barriers women and children encounter in receiving adequate, appropriate health care.

The Healthy Kids 2000 Act will allow States greater flexibility in ensuring quality prenatal care by allowing States to enroll eligible pregnant women in the State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), for which Congress
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provided $25 billion in 1997 to assist 10 million uninsured children in receiving the most basic health care. A recent study by the March of Dimes estimates that 45,000 uninsured pregnant women who are not eligible for Medicaid could be covered by S-CHIP if States were given the flexibility of extending coverage to income eligible pregnant women age 19 or older.

Additionally, the bill increases enrollment of Medicaid-eligible pregnant women. Currently, approximately 77 percent of uninsured pregnant women are eligible for Medicaid but are not enrolled. The bill also ensures direct access to obstetric care for women, and direct access to pediatric care, since children have health needs that are very different than those of the adult population.

Another crucial element of our bill allows our Nation's independent children's hospitals to receive Federal funding for graduate medical education. Currently, children's hospitals receive almost no Federal GME funding. With few Medicare patients, these children's hospitals receive less than $400 in Federal funds for each medical resident they train, while other teaching hospitals receive on average more than $79,000 for each resident--creating a serious inequity in the competitive market for these children's hospitals. As these hospitals try to fulfill their teaching missions, competitive market pressures provide little incentive for private payers to contribute toward teaching costs.

In an effort to reduce our Nation's infant death rate and to improve the chances of healthy birth outcomes, the Healthy Kids 2000 Act establishes a National Center for Birth Defects Research and Prevention, and strengthens local initiatives for drug, alcohol, and smoking prevention and cessation programs for pregnant mothers. An estimated 150,000 infants are born each year with a birth defect, resulting in one out of every five infant deaths. More children die in the U.S. from birth defects in the first year of life than from any other cause. Effective locally-based programs will prevent these horrific outcomes by equipping mothers, families, and health care providers with information and approaches needed to ensure women safer pregnancies.

Furthermore, our bill increases funding for the National Institutes of Health by creating the Pediatric Research Initiative, which will provide further money to research efforts on diseases and conditions which afflict our Nation's children, such as birth defects, SIDS, cystic fibrosis, juvenile diabetes, and muscular dystrophy.

Our health care professionals in southern Missouri and across the Nation work very hard to provide the highest quality care for our children. The reality is that pediatric care, like all health care, does cost money. We need to take positive steps to ensure that every mother-to-be and their children are able to access this quality care. I am very pleased to again be working with Senator BOND on an important children's health initiative. On behalf of our youngest and most vulnerable citizens, I urge my colleagues to review the Healthy Kids 2000 Act, to discuss this bill with families in their districts, and to join me in cosponsoring this important legislation.
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