SCHIP Updates, News and Activities

SCHIP Messaging – Week of November 5, 2007

Americans want children covered.
According to a CBS News poll, 81% of Americans favor the SCHIP reauthorization bill that Congress passed but the President vetoed.
SCHIP is a remarkably successful program that has provided health coverage to millions of America’s uninsured children. But, now, more than ever, the country needs to strengthen and revitalize SCHIP. Rising health care costs have pushed affordable coverage out of range for more and more working families.

In Ohio, we have done a good job of covering kids.
Ohio is ready to move forward and cover more children, but the partisan stalemate in Congress brought on by the presidential veto of the State Children’s Health Insurance bill threatens to impede this progress.
Without SCHIP, Ohio will have to use regular Medicaid funds for its expansion from 200-300% FPL, stretching the state budget such that we may have to make difficult choices in the future.
With the well-being of Ohio’s children and the security of hardworking families at stake, we urge the Congress to rise above these partisan differences and to adopt a strong 5-year reauthorization now that will ensure no child in Ohio or the U.S. loses coverage.
We will not accept a bill that covers less than 4 million children.
SCHIP has been resoundingly successful in covering the children it was created to cover—those in hardworking families who make too much to qualify for Medicaid and too little to afford private coverage. The window of time is shrinking for Congress and the President to act to ensure hardworking Ohio families will not be faced with loss of coverage come; but the window has not yet closed.

We urge our Members to get the work done now with a strong bill, not a watered down bill that harms kids, so we can avoid the crisis of cutting coverage to thousands of children.
 

• Cincinnati Activists Carry Out Full Court Press on SCHIP

• VOICES FOR OHIO’S CHILDREN THANKS LEGISLATORS AND ADVOCATES;REGRETS FAILURE TO OVERRIDE SCHIP VETO

• HAVE A HEART OHIO FAULTS FAILURE TO
  OVERRIDE PRESIDENTIAL SCHIP VETO

Next Steps in the SCHIP fight:
(from our friends at Center for Budget and Policy Priorities)

Behind-the-scenes negotiations continue on SCHIP. A new SCHIP package might surface, with a vote in the House as early as Thursday (Nov. 8), with a vote in the Senate the following week. If negotiators fail to reach an agreement this week, we'll likely see another one-month extension as negotiations continue into December. Regardless of what happens with SCHIP over the next two weeks, Congress has to pass another continuing resolution to keep the government funded beyond November 16th -- it is expected that the next CR will run through sometime in mid-December and that the one-month SCHIP extension will be included as part of that package.