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Literal Truth of Children's Health Care
11/07/07Despite a coordinated campaign to mislead Americans away from the countless merits of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), the House and Senate voted overwhelmingly, with bipartisan support, to provide health care to 10 million American children, nearly one million of whom are in Texas.
The facts plainly and simply support expansion of the existing SCHIP program. This bill would preserve health care for 420,000 Texas children already enrolled in the program and allow at least 500,000 more to receive health care coverage. In addition, S-CHIP expands the Family and Medical Leave Act to include family members of wounded veterans, and it is fully paid for, requiring no new deficit spending.
Earlier this month President Bush used the veto to deny low-income American children vital health care coverage administered by SCHIP, erroneously saying that the bipartisan compromise bill would provide illegal immigrants and families making over $83,000 per year with access to the program. This is simply not true and I am saddened that dishonest tactics were successful in stealing health care from children.
Section 605, which is titled, “No Federal Funding for Illegal Aliens,” states, “Nothing in this Act (SCHIP) allows Federal payment for individuals who are not legal residents.” In my opinion it is disgraceful for a Member of Congress or any elected official to blatantly lie in an attempt to smear a moral and just piece of legislation that benefits children.
The $83,000 argument is just as farfetched and misleading as the illegal immigrant question.
In an open letter, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Ranking Republican Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Health Subcommittee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), and Health Subcommittee Ranking Republican Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) state, “To say that the compromise bill increases coverage for the upper middle class is flatly wrong. The truth is that the bill actually moves in the opposite direction by focusing policies and incentives exclusively on targeted low income children. First, the bill establishes a new financial incentive for states to enroll children below 200 percent of poverty.”
The Texas delegation was split on the bipartisan proposal with fourteen House members and Senator Hutchison voting for the children’s health insurance proposal, and eighteen House Members and Senator Cornyn casting votes opposing expanded health care coverage for uninsured children. I again cast my vote to provide Texas children with access to check-ups, medicine, and routine tests that they depend on to be healthy and happy.
Texas flourishes when our children are healthy and have access to medical care. A healthy child has a greater ability to learn and thus has an exponentially increased opportunity to succeed in life. Upfront investment in our children has a comprehensive impact on our economy by alleviating the strain the uninsured population places on emergency rooms and hospitals; that we pay for through local taxes and higher premiums for our personal health insurance. Put another way, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
If we forgo this investment in our children we risk even greater costs down the road. Unhealthy children grow into unhealthy adults who drive up medical costs ultimately borne by hardworking tax payers.
No child in this nation should have to grow up without health coverage, period. Of the approximately 46 million Americans with no health insurance, roughly 10 million are children.
S-CHIP was established with broad bipartisan support in 1997 by President Clinton and a Republican-led Congress. Since its foundation, the program has reduced the number of uninsured children by one-third nationwide. President Bush and House Republicans should join the chorus of Americans who want this legislation for the 10 million children who NEED S-CHIP.
I remain committed to ensuring that we cover our uninsured children in this country so that quality health care is affordable and accessible for everyone. I will continue to advocate that this important legislation becomes law and I will vote to override the President’s veto because it is the right thing to do for America’s children.