Etheridge Calls on Congress to Cover Uninsured in N.C.

News Release
Congressman Bob Etheridge
North Carolina

May 5, 2006

Contact: Joanne Peters
Phone: (202) 225-4531

Etheridge Calls on Congress to
Cover Uninsured in N.C.

WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-Lillington) today called on his colleagues in Congress to address America's health care crisis that has left a startling number of North Carolinians without health insurance. May 1 through May 7 is "Cover the Uninsured Week." He delivered the following statement:

"Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call on Congress to address our nation's health care crisis without further delay.

Nearly 46 million Americans live without health insurance every day. In my state, more than 1.4 million people - that's one in five North Carolinians under the age of 65 - do not have health insurance.

This is not just a policy debate; it is a challenge to our nation. If we cannot develop a means to deliver affordable health care to everyone, we are failing in providing the most basic of protections to our citizens.

I think the key to a strong community is to have healthy individuals and families. We need everyone- labor, business, health care professionals, seniors and others - working together to develop solutions that will work.

This Congress must pass legislation that provides adequate reimbursement rates for medical providers, that helps small businesses and the self-employed to afford health insurance, and that provides community health centers with the funding they need. And we must defeat proposed budget cuts in Medicaid and Medicare that will hurt American families.

We must all keep fighting until affordable, quality health care is no longer of privilege for some, but a right for all."

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Pictured at top: Etheridge speaks to students about the importance of education