Created in 1997 to help states provide health insurance to children whose family income does not qualify them for Medicaid, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program is one of the most successful health programs. SCHIP ensures that all children have access to basic health care services, including immunizations, hospital stays, doctor’s visits, and other critical benefits. Since its creation, the SCHIP program and the streamlining of children’s Medicaid enrollment has resulted in 1 million additional Texas children receiving health insurance coverage.

Despite the SCHIP program’s success, the program offers states significant flexibility with regard to benefits design and enrollment procedures. While more than 500,000 Texas children were enrolled in SCHIP in 2003, the Texas Legislature enacted program changes that year that resulted in 41 percent drop in enrollment, which today stands at approximately 300,000 children. Since SCHIP’s creation in 1997, the State of Texas has also let nearly $900 million in federal SCHIP funds revert back to the Treasury, despite the fact that approximately two-thirds of uninsured Texas children live in families with incomes under 200 percent of the federal poverty level, the income threshold for SCHIP eligibility.

To encourage states like Texas to identify eligible children and enroll them in SCHIP, the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act provides states with a bonus payment for enrolling children above their projected enrollment levels. To qualify for the bonus payment, states must implement several outreach and enrollment tools to simplify and streamline enrollment in the program. One of the most effective enrollment tools is 12 months of continuous eligibility; however, the State of Texas has previously utilized a 6 month eligibility policy that serves only to erect barriers to re-enrollment for low-income Texas children and contributed to the dropping of 175,000 children from the SCHIP rolls since 2003. I am hopeful that the bonus payment package will encourage the State of Texas to provide children in SCHIP with 12 months of continuous eligibility, which is the standard in the private health insurance industry.

On October 25, 2007, the House of Representatives passed the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (HR 3963) by a vote of 265-142. This legislation would reauthorize the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) for an additional five years and provide health insurance to nearly four million children who are currently eligible for the program yet remain un-enrolled. On December 12, 2007, the President has vetoed this piece of legislation and the House failed to override the veto on January 23, 2008 by a vote of 260 to 152 and I voted in favor of overriding the President’s veto. Currently, the SCHIP program is funded under a short-term continuing resolution. I will continue to work to reauthorize and expand this program to provide critical health insurance to Texas’ low-income children.

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