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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, September 28, 2007
For Media Assistance
Applaud Passage of Bipartisan SCHIP Compromise in Congress
SACRAMENTO, CA-- After months of diligent work on reauthorizing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which is set to expire this Sunday, September 30th, the House and Senate have struck a bipartisan compromise that is on its way to President Bush’s desk.
In a bipartisan vote of 67 to 29, the Senate voted Thursday in favor of the compromise. The House approved the bill earlier this week with a 265 to 159 vote. The House vote included 45 Republicans, including California Congresswoman Mary Bono.
The compromise bill seeks not just to reauthorize the SCHIP program, but also proposes an additional $35 billion in funding over the next five years, in order to continue to provide health insurance to the 6.6 million children who receive health insurance with SCHIP funds now, and to provide an additional 4 million uninsured children with health insurance. In California, SCHIP funds will provide coverage to more than one million children and pregnant women. Funding would come from a 61-cent tobacco tax increase.
Republicans and Democrats in Congress have put the nation’s interests above politics, passing a responsible, bipartisan compromise bill that can deliver a win for millions of uninsured children. SCHIP has a solid, ten-year track record of covering children whose parents work but don’t earn enough to keep pace with the skyrocketing price of private health insurance.
The SCHIP reauthorization bill is now headed to President Bush, who has threatened to veto it. Millions of uninsured children in America are now counting on President Bush. Only he can help them to get the health care they need. The President’s SCHIP proposal would provide $5 billion over 5 years—not enough funding to cover those children who are currently eligible for the program. Under the President’s plan, 200,000 to 400,000 California children would lose coverage by September 2008.
"SCHIP is popular across the country because it has proven to work,” said Wendy Lazarus, Co-Founder and Director, The Children’s Partnership. “It is obvious that our Congressional representatives see the value in this program and place a high priority on the health of the nation's children. Our focus must now be on President Bush. We urge him to move past politics, and join other elected officials in making good on the promise of health coverage for children."
While the Senate vote would override a veto from the President, the House vote tally falls short of the 290 votes necessary to do the same.
"SCHIP funding is an essential part of our overall effort to bring health coverage to our most vulnerable children, not just in California, but the rest of the nation. If the President vetoes this SCHIP bill, children across the country will lose their health coverage, and with that, the essential care they need to live healthy and productive lives,” said Jim Keddy, Director of PICO California. “The President has to put himself in these families’ shoes, and realize that a child’s sickness affects not only the health and schooling of the child, but the well-being of an entire family, with both work and school days missed.”
Children’s advocate groups, including The Children’s Partnership, PICO California, Children Now, and Children’s Defense Fund California will be reaching out to the President and Congressional leaders to continue to push this issue forward.
California’s SCHIP program, Healthy Families, is the largest in the nation. Federal contributions provide approximately 65 percent of the funding needed to operate Healthy Families, which today covers more than 830,000 children.
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The 100% Campaign, a collaborative
effort of Children Now, Children's Defense Fund and The
Children's Partnership, with primary funding from The
California Endowment, was created to ensure that all
of California's children obtain the health coverage they
need to grow up strong and healthy.
The PICO California Project is the united effort
of 20 California congregation-community organizations
affiliated with the PICO National Network. Collectively,
we represent 350 congregations and 400,000 families statewide
and are actively organizing in over 70 cities in Northern
and Southern California.
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