Kildee Urges Bush to Sign Children’s Healthcare Bill,

Washington, D.C.  – The House of Representatives passed Tuesday a bill to reauthorize the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).  Congressman Dale E. Kildee (D-MI) voted to commit $35 billion to provide healthcare coverage to more than 10 million children nationwide.  The State Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007 passed the House today by a vote of 265 - 159.

Due to expire on September 30, 2007, SCHIP currently provides healthcare coverage to more than 6 million children of working families.  Those children would lose the only insurance available to them if the program is not reauthorized.  The SCHIP reauthorization would provide coverage to 4 million additional children, including thousands in Michigan, who are currently eligible but not yet enrolled in SCHIP.

“The healthcare of our children should be the top priority of the President and I urge him to sign this critical, bipartisan bill,” said Kildee.  “With 118,000 Michigan children who rely on SCHIP as their only form of health insurance, there is far too much at stake to let this program lapse.”

In Michigan, 118,000 children who are currently enrolled in Michigan’s CHIP program would retain their healthcare coverage.  The SCHIP reauthorization would provide the resources to enroll an additional 80,900 uninsured Michigan children who are eligible but not currently signed up for SCHIP.

“Proper healthcare is critical to the healthy development of children in the formative years,” said Kildee.  “Delivering children’s healthcare through SCHIP has been successful and cost-effective since the program’s creation.  It costs far less to provide appropriate, ongoing child care than it does to pay for emergency room visits.” 

SCHIP has been one of the most cost-effective methods to insure children, costing less than $3.50 a day.  The cost of insuring children through CHIP is minimal when compared to the cost of indigent care and expensive emergency room visits.

Although President Bush highlighted his support for SCHIP while running for re-election in 2004, he has threatened to veto Democrats' SCHIP reauthorization legislation.

The State Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act has received broad bipartisan support from Congress, 43 Governors, the American Medical Association, the Healthcare Leadership Council, the American Cancer Society, the Catholic Health Association, and more than 270 other organizations.