House Passes Bill to Provide Health Coverage to 11 Million Children

HOUSE PASSES BILL TO PROVIDE HEALTH COVERAGE TO 11 MILLION CHILDREN

Washington, D.C.–U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) joined a majority of her colleagues in the House of Representatives today to pass the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act (CHAMP) of 2007, H.R. 3162. The bill, which reauthorizes the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), passed the House by a vote of 225 to 205. Under current law, SCHIP is set to expire September 30, 2007.

"Today, the Democratically-led Congress delivered on our promise to provide health care to 11 million children,... said U.S. Representative Schakowsky. "As a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and a Chief Deputy Whip, I worked with my colleagues to ensure that we provided health care to the people who need it the most, our children....

The CHAMP Act reauthorizes CHIP for 6 million children and provides 5 million more low-income children with health coverage-covering at total of 11 million children. The bill maintains current law regarding eligibility for SCHIP and gives states the ability to reach millions of uninsured children who are eligible for, but no enrolled in, the program.

"After days of obstructionist tactics by the Republican minority, we were finally able to pass a bill to expand health care to 5 million more children. I am proud to join a majority of my colleagues in the House to reauthorize the States Children's Health Insurance Program and to make critical improvements to Medicare for seniors and people with disabilities....

Since it was created in 1997, the CHIP program has received broad bipartisan support and has proven to be a successful program. It was the product of bipartisan negotiations between a Republican-led Congress and the Clinton Administration. The program has cut the number of uninsured children by one-third in the last decade. It has continued to receive bipartisan support from a majority of Democratic and Republican governors and over 91 percent of voters.

In addition to providing health insurance to children, the CHAMP Act includes provisions to protect and improve Medicare. The bill reverses the Republican attempts to privatize Medicare by phasing out overpayments to private plans over the next four years. The bill ensures that seniors have access to the doctors of their choice by stopping a scheduled 10 percent payment cut to doctors. The bill also improves Medicare by providing new preventive benefits and improved access to care by reducing out-of-pocket costs for low-income-seniors. Finally, the bill also streamlines eligibility requirements, eliminates barriers to enrollment, and makes improvements to the assets test that has kept low-income seniors from getting the care they need.