Senate Finance Committee’s SCHIP Markup: A Good First Step toward Covering Children

Today, the Senate Finance Committee marked up and passed, by a 17-4 margin, the reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The following is the statement of Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA, about the committee’s actions:

“Today’s big vote is noteworthy because of the strong bipartisan support the program received. It is important that we continue to maintain the SCHIP program’s long tradition of bipartisanship.

“The use of a tobacco tax to pay for the expansion of the SCHIP program will be a win-win for children’s health: It will reduce smoking and increase children’s health coverage.

“The proposal provides $35 billion in new SCHIP funding over the next five years. Although this is a good start, that amount is well short of the budget resolution’s $50 billion, and it will still leave millions of children uninsured. We intend to work with members of Congress to improve this funding to cover all uninsured children currently eligible for SCHIP.

“It was only three years ago when the President pledged to the American people that he would lead the way in enrolling millions of additional eligible children in the SCHIP program. Unbelievably, the President is now threatening to veto this critical legislation. The time has come for the President to drop his veto threats and honor his pledge to provide coverage to millions of uninsured children.”

###

Families USA is the national organization for health care consumers. It is nonprofit and nonpartisan and advocates for high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

1201 New York Avenue NW, Suite 1100 · Washington, DC 20005
202-628-3030 · Email: info@familiesusa.org · www.familiesusa.org