July 20,2004

Chairman Grassley Comments on the Recommendations of the National Coalition on Health Care

Statement by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Chairman, Committee on Finance
Recommendations of the National Coalition on Health Care
Tuesday, July 20, 2004

In announcing its recommendations for health care reform today, the National Coalitionon Health Care made an important contribution to the current dialogue on how to make ourhealth care system work better. The 44 million Americans who are uninsured, coupled with therising health care costs, make it difficult to find a one--fits-all solution to improve access andmake health care more affordable. As Congress works to address this issue, it is helpful to have recommendations from groups, such as the National Coalition. Governor Ray, Dr. Simmons and their colleagues deserve a lot of credit for the work to add their views to the debate on this vital issue.

Today the National Coalition on Health Care announced its recommendations for health care reform. The NationalCoalition is a non-partisan organization of nearly 100 of America’s largest businesses, unions, health careproviders, associations of religious congregations, pensions and health funds, insurers, and patient and consumergroups. Together they represent as least 150 million Americans that are united by their commitment to build a betterhealth care system.

As chairman of the Committee on Finance, Sen. Grassley has held three hearings to examine the uninsuredproblem. In 2002, he sponsored a tax credit program for certain displaced workers as part of the Trade PromotionAuthority Act. Last year, he shepherded through Congress legislation to redistribute unspent S-CH IP dollarsamong states to maximize public coverage of otherwise uninsured low-income children. For the last several years,Sen. Grassley has championed with Sen. Kennedy a bill that would expand Medicaid coverage to parents withseverely disabled children. Sen. Grassley is a member of the Republican Task Force on the Uninsured.