Politics

House Democrats Introduce Legislation To Expand Health Care Coverage to Millions of Children

By Karina

Today, House Democratic leaders introduced the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009, legislation to expand the State Children?s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover 11 million children. The program currently provides health insurance for more than 7 million children, but this legislation will protect coverage for those children and expand it to include an additional 4 million children who would otherwise be uninsured. Similar bipartisan legislation was vetoed twice by President Bush in 2007.

Speaker Pelosi:

Today, the House took the first step to achieve one of the top health care priorities for the new Congress: providing health care to 11 million children from working families. This legislation preserves the health coverage of 7 million children and extends it to 4 million uninsured children who are currently eligible for, but not enrolled in, SCHIP and Medicaid.

At a time of economic crisis, nothing could be more essential than ensuring that the children of hardworking families receive the quality care they deserve. With more than 2.6 million jobs lost last year alone, Americans are seeing the health care they and their children depend on disappear. By helping working families find affordable health care coverage, this bipartisan legislation will ensure that 11 million of America?s children grow up healthy, strong, and ready to learn.

This bipartisan, fully-paid-for children?s health insurance bill represents the New Direction many Members fought for in the last Congress, and it is only the beginning of the change we will achieve with our new President. We look forward to this legislation being among the first bills President Obama will sign into law.

Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee Chairman Pallone:

As our nation moves deeper into a recession, millions of American families are joining the ranks of the uninsured. For the last two years, President Bush blocked our efforts to strengthen SCHIP, but change is coming to Washington. This week, the House should once again show its commitment to ensuring more Americans have access to affordable and quality health care by passing legislation that will reach 11 million American children.

Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Waxman:

I am very proud that our first health care bill being considered in the new Congress and with a new President is to ensure health coverage to vulnerable children. The legislation will provide states with sufficient funding to continue their current SCHIP programs as well as to expand them to reach 4 million more low-income uninsured children. It also makes one important improvement by allowing states, at their option, to end the 5-year waiting period for low-income, uninsured children who are legal residents. This is far from health care reform, but it is a necessary start.

Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Emeritus Dingell:

The current economic crisis makes reauthorization of this program essential. Americans are losing their jobs at alarming rates and the CHIP program will be there to ensure our nation’s children don’t fall through the cracks. In my home state of Michigan it is expected that unemployment will rise to 11.3 percent in 2009. There is no doubt that this will only increase the number of children without health insurance, which currently stands at 142,000 children. It is clear that the time to act is now. Reauthorization of the CHIP program is a great first start as we begin our work on reforming the nation’s healthcare system.

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rangel:

I cannot think of a better investment in the future of our great nation than the health of our children. Extending the Children’s Health Insurance Program is not only good policy, it also offers an important opportunity to build bipartisan consensus on a critical issue. Congressional passage and swift enactment by President-elect Obama will demonstrate that change has come to Washington and that we are moving forward to improve economic security and quality of life for American families struggling during these hard times.

Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Stark:

I am proud to join with my colleagues to introduce this SCHIP improvement legislation. With a new President, we can and should quickly enact this legislation to help millions of children maintain their health coverage, a step made all the more important by the failing economy. I am also pleased that this bill includes a provision to finally close a loophole allowing physicians to self-refer to hospitals they own. These arrangements increase health expenditures, destabilize community hospitals by pulling profit centers out of them, and potentially endanger patients’ lives.

Learn more about the legislation>>

Read the full bill text>>

Full post as published by The Gavel on January 13, 2009 (boomark / email).