Remarks (as prepared): National Association of Children's Hospital Lunch

REMARKS [AS PREPARED]: NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CHILDREN'S HOSPITALS LUNCH

Thank you, Justin (Fuller), for that kind introduction. I'd also like to thank the National Association of Children's Hospitals for extending an invitation to drop by today's lunch. Please go ahead and keep eating. As the father eight, I am used to people eating -- and not paying any attention -- while I talk!

It's great to see so many folks here today -- especially the families and the children. Thank you for making the trip to Washington. It is you -- the parents and children -- who know better than anyone else in this room the value of Children's Hospitals.

Every time you visit the hospitals, you see the importance of research, the importance of treatment, and the importance of having doctors who are adequately trained. Children's Hospitals know it as Children's Graduate Medical Education, but parents and children know it as quality health care.

I am confident that the Senate will pass Children's Graduate Medical Education this year, and we will try to fully fund it, too, so that Children's Hospitals can continue to provide quality care to children all across our Nation. But, children who lack health insurance may not be able to access this quality, life-saving care provided at Children's Hospitals. That's not right. The more than 9 million uninsured children in the United States should be enrolled in public coverage, and we should streamline the eligibility process so these children can enroll in Medicaid and S-CHIP. I'm introducing a bill that will do just that.

We also need to do more to strengthen the system of care to ensure quality and accountability for children's coverage. We should be supporting innovative ideas at Children's Hospitals. Quality improvement funding shouldn't just be available at adult hospitals. Children's Hospitals have good ideas, too, and we should support those good ideas.

That's why I am working with the National Association of Children's Hospitals to introduce a bill that would provide grants to help improve pediatric quality -- a bill that would help Children's Hospitals begin to establish measures for quality care and can begin to share what works -- and what doesn't -- across systems.

I'll look to all of you for your support in getting these bills passed and ask that you work with your own members of Congress to get them on board.

Thank you, again, for inviting me to be here today.

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