(D-Maine)
The House just passed a bipartisan bill to allow more poor children to get health care through the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). As I write this, the Senate is expected to pass it as well. Unfortunately, President Bush has promised to veto this legislation. This leaves many Mainers asking, with 47 million Americans lacking health care coverage — one of the great challenges in America today — why would the President veto a bill to give health insurance to an additional 4 million low-income children?
It costs less than $3.50 a day to cover a child through CHIP. Insuring kids is tremendously cost-effective for American taxpayers: without health coverage, these kids get their care through emergency rooms – the most expensive way to get care. Or even worse, they get no care at all, and the long-term bills for their health get much higher. In the long run, study after study shows that a healthy child is more likely to succeed in education and in life. Covering kids really is an efficient use of our tax dollars and a great investment in the future productivity of our nation.
Two-thirds of uninsured children are currently eligible for CHIP or Medicaid. This bill is simply designed to give states the resources and incentives to enroll children who are already eligible but who are not signed up. There is no unfunded mandate for Maine — quite the opposite, this bill will help our state financially.
Since it was created in 1997, CHIP has always received strong bipartisan support. This week’s legislation was supported by bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate. It is also supported by 43 Governors (16 of them Republicans), 270 organizations representing millions of Americans, and a clear majority of the American people.
The legislation renews CHIP and provides health care coverage for a total of more than 10 million children – preserving coverage for the 6.6 million already covered by CHIP and extending coverage to 3.8 million children who are currently uninsured, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
I think that the President is getting some bad advice on this one, especially given the strong support for this bill across party lines. In fact, a letter written by Republican Representatives Heather Wilson (of New Mexico) and Ray Lahood (of Illinois) to President Bush urging his support for the bill said: “Investment in children’s health pays off many times during a child’s life. Children’s health care should be a bipartisan issue, and this agreement reflects a bipartisan compromise to improve the health of America’s children.”
The President’s veto threat is especially puzzling when you consider what CHIP does. It was created to provide health care coverage for children in families who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to afford private insurance. That’s a lot of families in Maine. As of 2005, just over 30,000 children in our state received CHIP coverage — this bill would ensure that all of them can continue to be covered — and it would give coverage to about 12,000 more low-income Maine kids.
Right now, millions of children in America’s working families can’t see doctors when they should and can’t get medicines when they need them, because their parents just can’t afford costly private insurance. That is just wrong. Programs like CHIP provide a much needed lifeline to hardworking families in Maine and throughout the country.
I was pleased to join a majority of my colleagues in passing the CHIP bill in the House. I sincerely hope that the President recognizes the importance of this effort and reconsiders his veto threat. No child in Maine or anywhere throughout our nation should ever go without medical care.
