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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services | ||||
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| REMARKS BY: | TOMMY G. THOMPSON, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES |
| PLACE: | The "Covering Kids Campaign" Event, Washington, D.C. |
| DATE: | August 1, 2002 |
Thank you so very much, Dr. Schroeder (President and CEO of RWJ Foundation). Your leadership of this wonderful organization has been tremendous. I'm so very grateful to you for all you are doing for the health of so very many individuals all across our great country.
Let me also congratulate Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey as you prepare to assume the presidency of the Foundation. You will do a superb job, and I look forward to working with you on many issues of mutual concern.
I'm so very proud to share this podium with two great champions of health care for lower-income Americans, Senators Orin Hatch and Ted Kennedy.
I also want to greet Dr. Berry Brazelton and Heidi Murkoff. The two of you have probably given more parents sound guidance - and more sighs of relief - than any other two Americans. And let me say hello to the characters of "Sesame Street" that are joining us. My children are grown now, but you brought them great joy when they were small. And now my granddaughter Sophie is becoming a fan of Kermit, Miss Piggy and Big Bird ... just as all of us here are.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is one of America's premier philanthropies, not just because of the quantity of money you dispense - which is tremendous - but also because of the causes to which you contribute.
You help drug abusers break the bonds of their addiction … you help poor and low-income families obtain quality care … you reach out to minority populations, who are so often underserved and so often neglected … and you help those at the twilight of life retain the dignity and receive the compassion to which every human being is entitled.
In all of these and so many other ways, you affirm that every life is precious … that every illness must be fought … that every disease must be conquered … and that every person, of whatever age, gender, race or ethnicity, has immeasurable value.
On behalf of the President of the United States, and on my own behalf, I thank you deeply for all you are doing to provide health care to Americans of every station, in every region and of every condition.
Today, you are taking another innovative step to ensure that every child in our country has access to the health care he or she needs. My friends, there is absolutely no good reason why, in a nation as prosperous and caring as ours, each boy and girl should not have access to quality health care.
The "Covering Kids" campaign is so important. Let me just be frank with you: In Washington, we launch and support so many worthy initiatives that sometimes we have a hard time keeping track of all of them.
But there is nothing as important as making sure that the little ones among us are cared for. That's why "Covering Kids" strikes such a chord with me and, I know, with all of you. It's about enrolling children in existing programs … in the various State Children's Health Insurance and Medicaid programs that exist in all 50 states.
We have worked hard since coming into office last year to extend health insurance to children whose families are struggling. We've applied some of the lessons we learned in my great home state of Wisconsin, where our "BadgerCare" program has brought health coverage to tens of thousands of low-income but hard-working families.
That's one reason we have approved nearly 2,000 Medicaid waivers and state plan amendments since last January. In doing so, we have extended care to 1.8 million people, many of them small children, who lacked it … and we have enhanced care for another 4.5 million individuals.
And we have provided more than half a million seniors with drug coverage under the "Pharmacy Plus" Medicaid waiver program.
We have approved these waivers and amendments not just for the satisfaction of clearing a bureaucratic backlog or to praise ourselves for our efficiency. We have approved them because we share with you a deep desire to help those among us who are in great need.
Yet more must be done, especially in minority communities. We are working hard to that end. We have just launched our "Con Confianza" initiative to draw more Latino young people into health care … we are reaching out in a number of ways to the black community … and, of course, we are so very proud to work with "Covering Kids."
I should note that we have a special phone number, available 24 hours a day, to provide information about how to enroll in SCHIP and gain Medicaid benefits for children. It's 1-877-KIDS-NOW … or 1-877-543-7669.
We are taking these steps because the coverage that exists is simply not being used. And that, my friends, has got to change, and it will.
As I close, some words spoken by President Bush in his Inaugural Address bear directly on what we're doing here today. Let me leave you with them:
"In the quiet of American conscience," said the President, "we know that deep, persistent poverty is unworthy of our nation's promise. And whatever our views of its causes, we can agree that children at risk are not at fault. Where there is suffering, there is duty."
We at the Department of Health and Human Services are seeking with all our energy to fulfill that duty, and are so very proud to partner with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to do so.
Thank you again so very much. May God bless you, and may He bless, especially, the children of America.