Schakowsky Supports Bipartisan Bill to Provide Health Care for More than 10 Million Children

SCHAKOWSKY SUPPORTS BIPARTISAN BILL TO PROVIDE HEALTH CARE FOR MORE THAN 10 MILLION CHILDREN

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, joined a majority of her colleagues this evening to support bipartisan legislation to provide health care to more than 10 million low-income children. The Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Reauthorization Act, which reflects a House-Senate compromise, was approved by a vote of 265 to 159.

This bill reauthorizes the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for five years and preserves the coverage for all 6.6 million children currently covered by CHIP, including preserving the coverage of nearly 300,000 children in Illinois. The bill also extends health care coverage to 3.8 million additional low-income children, who are currently uninsured, including extending coverage to over 150,000 uninsured children in Illinois.

Congresswoman Schakowsky submitted the following remarks into the congressional record today in support of the CHIP Reauthorization Act.

"I want to start by thanking Chairman Dingell as well as the democratic leadership for working so hard to bring the Children's Health Insurance Program reauthorization bill before us today. H.R. 976 is not a compromise that was easily come by, and it's important to recognize the hard work that has gone into it.

Let's be clear, today each of us is either voting for providing healthcare to more uninsured children, or voting against covering more uninsured kids.

This bill is not the bill that I would have written, nor is it as good as the bill that passed the House. But it will cover the 6.6 million children currently covered by CHIP and will reach an additional 4 million kids. It also provides children with dental coverage and finally puts mental health services on par with other medical benefits covered under the program. This bill will also improve quality improvement, outreach, and enrollment efforts under CHIP, and will target those most in need. It is a good bill that we think will get to the president's desk. Thus, I think the commitment this bill makes to our children should be celebrated.

Yet, we need to push further and pass several provisions that were in the house bill, including meaningful improvements in access to basic health services, including granting access to our legal immigrant children, more affordable prescription drug costs and benefits for seniors citizens and people with disabilities, and adequate reimbursements for physicians that provide critical care to the Medicare population.

Incredibly, President Bush has pledged to veto this compromise, bipartisan, bicameral measure. The President and the Congressional Republican leadership say that we cannot afford it. We can't afford to cover children, but we can afford the war in Iraq. The bill to provide health care to children will cost $35 billion over the next 5 years — but we will spend over $50 billion in the next 5 months in Iraq.

While this bill could have been so much more to so many of our constituents, it does bring us a necessary, moderate expansion of the Children's Health Insurance Program and I urge my colleagues to support it....