Statement of Congressman John D. Dingell, Ranking Member
Committee on Energy and Commerce

SUBCOMMITTEE ON HEALTH
SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT & INVESTIGATIONS
JOINT HEARING ENTITLED “ASSESSING PUBLIC HEALTH AND THE DELIVERY OF CARE
IN THE WAKE OF KATRINA”

September 22, 2005

Mr. Chairman, thank you for scheduling this hearing. We have all been shocked by the destruction, human suffering, and loss of life wrought by hurricane Katrina. The full toll in terms of physical and mental illness and premature death attributable to Katrina is yet to be known, but it is already considerable.

What brings us here today is the virtually universal acknowledgment that some of the death and destruction wrought by Katrina was avoidable. Some of her victims could have been spared if adequate local, State, and Federal preparedness and response programs had been in place and executed in a timely and competent fashion. We have now seen the human costs of inadequate funding and incompetent management. Today, and in future hearings, this Committee should be examining what happened, and what the Federal Government and others can do better next time.

What also brings us here today is our duty to assess the current and future health care needs of the people and areas affected by the storm and its aftermath. None of us wants to compound the problem by ineffective or inadequate measures to rebuild the public health infrastructure, or by scrimping on the true costs of delivering health care to a displaced and needy population.

I note that it is times like these that we really have a chance to see how efficient the Medicaid program can be, and how critical for people’s health. Every hour of every day there is someone having trouble gaining access to medication, a doctor, or other healthcare because they have lost their job, their income, their identification, their assets, and more. Providing 100 percent Federal Medicaid reimbursement for people and States devastated by Katrina will result in immediate relief. These people need care now, not tomorrow, or next week while the Federal Government tries to work out a new complex system.

I welcome this hearing as a good start in the process of examining what went wrong, what needs to be done now, and how we can do better in the future. I look forward to the testimony of our witnesses.

- 30 -

(Contact: Jodi Seth, 202-225-3641)