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Statement on Children's Health Insurance
Thursday August 02, 2007
Rep. Engel: I thank the gentleman, Mr. Speaker. The reauthorization of state children's health insurance is unquestionably one of the most important bills we'll pass this year. This bill will protect six million kids currently covered by SCHIP and provide coverage for an additional five million children.
This bill provides a progressive outreach to enroll children by simplifying enrollment procedures and awarding states bonuses for finding more children. This is important since two thirds of the uninsured children in our nation are actually eligible but not enrolled in Medicaid or SCHIP.
What is the response of our Republican friends? Block the bill from coming up in our committee, create phony issues because they're against insuring children. Illegal amnesty? Give me a break. No hearings? We've had seven hearings on this bill. Eligible for private insurance? 93.5 percent of the children we cover in this bill would have no private insurance without this bill. What is the President's response? Under the President's plan, this program would see its funding cut from last year, and worse, the money allocated for its reauthorization would be less than half of the amount required to maintain coverage for current beneficiaries.
He says he'll veto this bill because it covers too many children. This is unconscionable. Sixty-one national advocacy groups devoted to improving children's health requested we fund the SCHIP program at 60 billion additional dollars. The President countered with 4.8 billion dollars. Clearly there is a disconnect.
We are proud that despite budgetary constraints we will be able to reauthorize our SCHIP program at 50 billion. I am proud that we will be covering 11 million low income children under this reauthorization, and I know our nation will be better off for it. This is an amazing feat.
Passing bills like this is why we should all feel honored to be Members of Congress. I am sorry that my Republican friends just continue to say no. We say yes. Yes to 11 million children. Yes to saying that our children ought to be insured. Yes to saying that America's children need our help. Pass this bill. It's good for all our children