Healthcare

The State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) was created in 1997 to provide government funded healthcare to low-income American children, who did not have private health insurance and could not qualify for Medicaid. As many of you know the House has voted to reauthorize SCHIP three times, but each of the Democratic sponsored bills had numerous flaws.

I have heard from many of you on this topic and I appreciate your calls and comments. Reauthorizing this program and expanding the coverage so that all low-income children are provided health insurance is very important to me. However, I cannot support a bill that:

• Removes children already covered by private health insurance and puts them on a government funded program. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office nearly 2 million children will be removed from their private health insurance and put on the government funded program;
• Lowers the requirements for enrollment, thus allowing illegal immigrants to be covered. Currently, states are required to seek proof of U.S. citizenship before they provide Medicaid coverage, except in emergencies. The states now require applicants to show documents like birth certificates or passports in order to prove U.S. citizenship and nationality. The bill would allow applicants to submit a Social Security number instead;
• Covers more adults than children in some states. Right now there are more than 500,000 low-income children eligible for the program but not covered.  Meanwhile, some 700,000 adults currently receive SCHIP benefits, including 87 percent of the enrollees in Minnesota and 66 percent of the beneficiaries in Wisconsin;

SCHIP was designed to serve low-income children and not adults or illegal immigrants. SCHIP should be for children only and should phase out childless adults. It should not force children out of private health insurance. And SCHIP must be funded for the entire length of the program by a source that will not increase taxes

In the coming weeks, Congress will revisit SCHIP and my hope is that we can pass a reauthorization that puts poor children first. Congress must unite and work together to reauthorize and expand SCHIP to cover every poor American child.

For more information please see:

We Must Put Poor Children First
KUHL VOTES TO EXTEND CHILDRENS HEALTHCARE WITH SCHIP
Rep. Kuhl's Statement on Today's SCHIP Vote