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Washington, D.C. --- U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, joined Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Hoyer and several families who have benefited from the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) at a press conference today to highlight a bipartisan agreement that will be voted on in the U.S. House of Representatives later today. The New Jersey congressman issued the following remarks.
"I want to thank the Speaker and the Majority Leader for their tremendous leadership on getting us to where we are today. The bipartisan agreement reached at the end of last week would not have been possible without their leadership. I would also like to thank the Frost family for being here today and telling their story about how important passage of this legislation is to them personally.
"For a decade now, the Children's Health Insurance Program has provided peace of mind to millions of families around the nation like the Frost family. President Bush likes to say that all Americans have health insurance; they can all go to an emergency room. But not all health care is an emergency and that's why access to health insurance is so vitally important.
"Parents need the peace of mind that their children will have access to the necessary shots and the proper medical attention they need to grow up healthy. And if there is an emergency, like the one the Frost family faced three years ago, CHIP provides the peace of mind that the quality care will extend beyond those initial life-saving services.
"Today, CHIP gives the parents of six million low-income children the peace of mind that their children are receiving the medical attention they need. Thanks to CHIP, the number of low-income children without health insurance has fallen by one-fourth. However, that number has increased each of the last two years, which is an indication to many of us here in Congress that CHIP needs to be strengthened.
"Our bipartisan plan builds on past successes, and improves CHIP by reaching an additional four million low-income children who are already eligible for the program. I hope it receives strong bipartisan support today here in the House, so we can send President Bush the message that, in a nation as wealthy as ours, ensuring 10 million low-income children have access to quality health care is our responsibility to the next generation."
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