Rep. Maloney: Economic Downturn No Time for President to Turn His Back on America’s Children

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), Vice Chair of the Joint Economic Committee, released the following statement today after the House failed to muster the 2/3 majority needed to override the President’s veto of the revised State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP (HR 3963), legislation that would have provided 10 million children with health care coverage:

“In the current economic downturn, more and more parents are having trouble finding affordable health insurance for their children.  We can and should be giving millions of working parents one less thing to worry about during these trying times, not making their lives harder. 

“According to a recent Joint Economic Committee report, a million more children a year may need public health insurance because of worsening economic conditions.  State budgets are already strained by the weak national economy and growing housing crisis, so federal funding for the SCHIP program is more critical than ever. 

“Our children and working families deserve better.  The Democratic Congress will continue fighting to ensure American’s children have the health care coverage they need and deserve.”

The Joint Economic Committee (JEC), which Congresswoman Maloney Vice Chairs, released a report last week that showed that worsening economic conditions will increase demand for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and Medicaid.  For more information on the JEC report: http://maloney.house.gov/sites/maloney.house.gov/files/documents/economy/20080118JECReportEconomicImpactonCHIP.pdf

The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) was created in 1997 to provide health care coverage for children in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to afford private insurance. 

H.R. 3963 would have provided health coverage to 3.8 million additional low-income children who are currently uninsured, including 268,000 uninsured children in New York.  The bill would have also guaranteed that the 6.6 million children who currently participate in CHIP – including 618,973 New York children – continued to receive quality health coverage. 

###