Senate Proceeding on Nov 10th, 2009 :: 2:13:35 to 2:22:00
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2:13:25 to 2:13:45( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: quorum call: a the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. cardin: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: madam president, i ask unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business for up to ten minut. the presiding officer: whout objection. mr. cardin: madam president, this congress has taken a giant step forward in our effort to reform the anything's health care system.

2:13:35 to 2:22:00( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Benjamin L. Cardin

2:13:46 to 2:14:07( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: saturday evening, the house of representatives passed its bill which is estimated by the congressional budget office to provide affordable health coverage to 96% of americans while reducing our deficit by $109 billion over the next ten years. on behalf of the 760,000 uninsured marylanders and the countless more who are underinsured or facing huge

2:14:08 to 2:14:29( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: premium inses next year, i'm encouraged by my colleagues' success and i look forward to debate on this mos important issue here in the senate in the weeks ahead. today i rise to discuss an issue that has received scant attention on the floor of the senate and that is health disparities. it is an issue directly affecting one out of every three americans.

2:14:30 to 2:14:51( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: the 45 million latinos, 37 million african-americans, 13 million asians, 2.3 million native americans and alaska natives and 400,000 native hawaiians and pacific islanders in our nation. while they represent one-third of our nation's population, they are fully one-half of the uninsured. so when we enact legislation that expands access to millions

2:14:52 to 2:15:13( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: of uninsured americans, it will make a difference in minority communities and overall minority health and the health of our nation. but it's not enough to justice get people health insurance coverage. research tells us that even after accounting for those who lack health insurance, minority, racial and ethnic groups face inequities in access and treatment and they have adverse

2:15:14 to 2:15:34( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: health care outcomes at higher rates than caucasians. that's right, even with health insurance severity of conditions are comparable, racial and ethnic minorities toned receive lower -- tend to receive lower-quality health care so coverage is not enough. despite many attempts over the years by health policy-makers,

2:15:35 to 2:15:56( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: providers, researchers and others, wide disparities still persist in many if a sets of health care. when it comes to equitable care for minorities, low-income, gee graphic,ultural d language barriers and racial bias have been found to be common obstacles. these inequities carry a high cost in terms of life expectancy, quality of life, and efficiency.

2:15:57 to 2:16:18( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: and they cost our nation billions of dollars each year. researchers from johns hopkins university and the university of maryland found that between 2003 and 2006, racial and ethnic disparities cost the nation more than $229 billion in excess direct medical costs. adding indirect costs reveal a staggering $1.24 trillion in

2:16:19 to 2:16:39( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: lost wages and premature and preventable deaths and disabilities. by he wil elevating the focus on health disparities, we can bring down these costs and improve the quality of care across the board. so health disparities should matter to us all. if we are to improve the health

2:16:40 to 2:17:02( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: care status of americans, we should focus these inequities and make an effort to eliminate them. there's no better place to commit ourselves to that effort than the health reform legislation that we are about to consider. thrs knee better time to begin than right now. -- there's no betterime to be examples are found in all racial and ethnic minority groups and across a broad range of diseases and conditions.

2:17:03 to 2:17:25( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: the overall life expectancy for african- less than whites. but as the kaiser family foundation has reported, health disparities begin even before birth. the use of prenatal care varies widely by wrasse 88% of white mothers receiving care in the first trimester of pregnancy but only 76% of black mothers and 77% of latino mothers.

2:17:26 to 2:17:48( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: this birth when black women experience pre-term births at a rate 50% higher than white women. 18.5% compared to 11.7%. and the rates of low-birthweight babies are also higher among black babies, 14% compared to 8.3% national average. in august of 1967, eight months

2:17:49 to 2:18:11( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: before his assassination, dr. martin luther king jr. addressed the southern christian leadership conference tenth anniversary convention in a speech entitled emption where do we go from here?" he said that to answer that question, we must first honestly recognize where we are now. when the constitution was written, it was declared that

2:18:12 to 2:18:33( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: the negro was 60% of a person. today another curious formula seems to declare that he is 50% of a person. of the good nings in life, the negro has approximately one-half of those of life and the bad nings this life, he has twice those of the white. he goes ton discuss employment rates before saying "the rate of infant morality among negros is

2:18:34 to 2:18:56( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: double that of whites." mr. president, today is 2009. the kaiser family foundation reports that the overall rate of infant mortality is 6.9% for evy 1,000 live births of white infants and 5.7 deaths. but african-americans have an infant mortality rate mo than

2:18:57 to 2:19:17( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: twice that of white whites. so 46 years after dr. king's "i had a dream" speech and 41 years after his death we have not made much progress. in dealing with this disparity. there is no other way to put it that this is a crisis. it has been a cris for decades, and we know it and we health disparities continue

2:19:18 to 2:19:38( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: through life and the data cuts across diagnosis conditions that are just a few of the -- i'll go through a statistics. african-americans have higher rates of asthma than whites. high blood pressure accounts for 18% of the national overall death rates,

2:19:39 to 2:20:00( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: of african-americans. regarding early de texte of colon cancer, afran-americans, asian and native americans and latinos over 50 all have higher rates when receiving any form of cancer screening. this disparity increased between 1999 and 2006. incidents of death from kidney

2:20:01 to 2:20:23( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: cancer in native americans and alaskan natives are higher than any other racial or ethnic group. native americans and alaskan natives die from heart disease much earlier than the overpaul population. the list goes on and on. disparities also affect oral hell care. last year the american journal of public health published research showing the vast

2:20:24 to 2:20:45( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: disparities in mortality rates. using the -- between 1999 and 2000 from the national cancer for health statistics, the researchers including drs. satche rnchts the 16th surgeon general of the united states, found that ink faints aged 25 to 54 was more than double that of rates. had the mortality rates of the

2:20:46 to 2:21:07( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: two races been comparable during the drktsd the researchers calculated 886,000 deaths could have been averted. we cannot afford to wait. we need action at every level. local, state, and federal. the leadership must come from the secretary of health and human services. codifying the office of minority

2:21:08 to 2:21:28( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: health and elevating it to to report directly to the secretary will empower the agency to continue its important work, protecting and improving the health of racial and ethnic minority populations. so i urge my colleagues as we continue health care reform, let's codify the office for minority health. let's elevate it. let's pay attention to this issue. the bill reported by the "help"

2:21:29 to 2:21:53( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: committee contains many important provisions, including section 221, which codifies and increases the authority of office of women's health across several agencies and h.h.s. i support let's also do that for minority health. i will close with another quote from dr. king who said, that "of

2:21:54 to 2:22:01( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: all the forms of i inequality -- as with other forms of inequality, it is within our power to change it. i ask my colleagues to join in this quest and do so without