| Speech by Governor Kulongoski |
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| September 25, 2006 |
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The Healthy Kids Plan
Thank you, Roger, for that great introduction. And thank all of you for joining us on this fine Monday morning.
I’m delighted to welcome some of my allies in the cause of helping children—allies who are very important, because they are strong, caring friends who just happen to be members of the legislature – Dave Hunt and Kurt Schrader.
Thank you, Dave and Kurt, for being here today, and thank you for all you’ve done—and all you will yet do—to help us achieve our goal …
… which is to guarantee that no child in Oregon goes to bed at night without medical coverage and health care.
We’re here today to announce a real-world, fully-funded, can-do solution to one of the most shameful failures of our health care system—the rising number of children who have no health insurance. All too often, these children go without the care they need to grow and thrive. Lack of health care cheats them of their right to learn, and deprives them of their potential to mature into happy, productive adults.
We are not here today to blame anyone. We are here to offer a solution. And the solution we offer is within our grasp.
Our solution is not without sacrifice.
We will ask people who smoke to pay more for their cigarettes -- for the sake of our children, but no more than smokers pay across the border in Washington state.
Our solution will not reach all Oregonians. I remain committed to a long-term, permanent solution that provides affordable health care for all Oregonian -- and all Americans.
But I’m unwilling to stand by and wait for that to happen—not when we have 117 thousand children without health coverage in Oregon.
For sake of our children, we must solve this problem. Our solution is real. It is feasible. It is something we can do now.
And shame on us if we don’t embrace a solution that’s within our grasp.
Former Governor John Kitzhaber is calling us to a great debate about over how to provide affordable, accessible and effective health care for everyone. We should engage in this debate—as employers, working families, health care providers and elected officials. And we should do so with a new sense of urgency.
But, in the meantime, a hundred and seventeen thousand children depend on us for a chance to grow up healthy and strong …
… more kids than are now enrolled in the school districts of Portland, Eugene, Coos Bay, Medford, Bend, Klamath and Pendleton combined.
We must not force these children to wait for the perfect solution. During every day we put off acting, thousands of kids across Oregon are less likely to receive preventive care.
They are more vulnerable to complications of illnesses that go untreated. And, they are more likely to suffer from uncontrolled chronic ailments. As a result, they struggle in school and miss out on opportunities to play, learn and thrive—opportunities all children should have.
We are the adults in this world. We bear the responsibility to look out for the health and well being of our children.
My Healthy Kids Plan accepts this responsibility—not as the sole responsibility of government, but as a shared responsibility,
… a partnership of government and families and employers.
My Healthy Kids Plan acts on this responsibility by putting new resources into the Oregon Health Plan to create new, affordable health care options for every child in every family in the state.
My Healthy Kids Plan encourages this responsibility, by helping families who have nowhere to turn. It gives them a new path to affordable health care for their children, and creates more affordable options for middle-income families as well.
Children in a family of four with incomes as high as $70,000 a year would be eligible for subsidized health coverage under my plan. And even those in higher income brackets would receive the option of buying coverage through the Oregon Health Plan for comprehensive medical, dental and vision services, including prescription drugs and mental health services.
We will make it possible for every family to provide health care for their children. In an era when working families suffer so much stress over skyrocketing energy costs, ever-higher tuition, and uncertainty over the future, we will remove a heavy burden of worry from their shoulders—
… the worry about providing health care for their children.
My Healthy Kids Plan is fiscally responsible. It doesn’t pass the buck. It doesn’t wait for better times that never come.
We will fund it fully with just 60 percent of the net increase in revenues we will receive by bringing our tobacco tax in line with Washington state’s tobacco tax. We will also maximize the availability of federal matching funds. We’ll draw a dollar and fifty cents in matching federal funds for every new dollar we invest in this program—not a bad return.
Finally, my Healthy Kids Plan recognizes that health insurance doesn’t always guarantee health care. For this reason, I am proposing to expand the statewide network of school-based health centers – like this one.
We’ll bring more dentists to our schools, so that children can receive dental care in places that are both accessible and familiar to them.
I want to thank the members of my Medicaid Advisory Committee for their work in reviewing and refining this plan,
… and the health care advocates who have worked tirelessly in this cause …
… and the key legislators, including Senator Westlund and Senator Monnes Anderson, who have agreed to support this plan in the next legislative session.
I will ask the legislature to pass this fully-funded, fully-feasible, shared-responsibility plan to make affordable health coverage available to every child in Oregon, beginning with the 2007 biennium.
I invite all lawmakers to work with me to get this done.
Once enacted, we can have this program up and running by January, 2008. And, within three years thereafter, I am confident that we can reduce the number of uninsured children in Oregon by 95 percent.
We know now that we can solve this problem. We can end the shame of 117,000 children without health coverage.
Don’t let the nay-sayers say that we can’t do this. We know now we can do it. We know now that we must do it. The solution is within our grasp. For the sake of our children, we will do it.
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