2002 Ron Paul 54:1
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I am
pleased to
help working Americans provide for their childrens health care needs
by
introducing the Child Health Care Affordability Act. The Child Health
Care
Affordability Act provides parents with a tax credit of up to $500 for
health
care expenses of dependent children. Parents caring for a child with a
disability, terminal disease, cancer, or any other health condition
requiring
specialized care would receive a tax credit of up to $3,000 to help
cover their
childs health care expenses. The tax credit would be available to all
citizens
regardless of whether or not they itemize their deductions.
2002 Ron Paul 54:2
The tax credits provided in
this bill
will be especially helpful to those Americans whose employers cannot
afford to
provide their employees health insurance. These workers must struggle
to meet
the medical bills of themselves and their families. This burden is
especially
heavy on, parents whose children have a medical condition, such as
cancer or a
physical disability, which requires long-term or specialized health
care.
2002 Ron Paul 54:3
As an OB-GYN who has had the
privilege
of delivering more than four thousand babies, I know how important it
is that
parents have the resources to provide adequate health care for their
children.
The inability of many working Americans to provide health care for
their
children is rooted in one of the great inequities of the tax code:
Congress
failure to allow individuals the same ability to deduct health care
costs that
it grants to businesses. As a direct result of Congress refusal to
provide
individuals with health care related tax credits, parents whose
employers do not
provide health insurance have to struggle to provide health care for
their
children. Many of these parents work in low-income jobs; oftentimes
their only
recourse to health care is the local emergency room.
2002 Ron Paul 54:4
Sometimes parents are forced
to delay
seeking care for their children until minor health concern that could
have been
easily treated become serious problems requiring expensive treatment!
If these
parents had access to the type of tax credits provided in the Child
Health Care
Affordability Act, they would be better able to provide care for their
children,
and our nations already overcrowded emergency room facilities would be
relieved
of the burden of having to provide routine care for people who
otherwise cannot
afford it.
2002 Ron Paul 54:5
According to research on the
effects of
this bill done by my staff and legislative counsel, the benefit of
these tax
credits would begin to be felt by joint filers with incomes slightly
above
$18,000 dollars a year, or single income filers with incomes slightly
above
$15,000 per year. Clearly this bill will be of the most benefit to
low-income
Americans balancing the demands of taxation with the needs of their
children.
2002 Ron Paul 54:6
Under the Child Health Care
Affordability Act, a struggling single mother with an asthmatic child
would at
last be able to provide for her childs needs; while a working-class
family will
not have to worry about how they will pay the bills if one of their
children
requires lengthy hospitalization or some other form of specialized care.
2002 Ron Paul 54:7
Mr. Speaker, this Congress has
a moral
responsibility to provide tax relief for low-income parents struggling
to care
for a sick child, in order to help them better meet their childs
medical
expenses. Some may say that we cannot enact the Child Health Care
Affordability
Act because it would cause the government to lose revenue, but who is
more
deserving of this money, Congress or the working parents of a sick
child?
2002 Ron Paul 54:8
The Child Health Care
Affordability Act
takes a major step toward helping working Americans meet their health
care needs
by providing them with generous health care related tax cuts and tax
credits. I
urge my colleagues to support the pro-family, pro-health care tax cuts
contained
in the Child Health Care Affordability Act.
This chapter appeared in Ron Pauls Congressional website at http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2002/cr061202.htm