Fri Sep 21, 2007 at 06:25:05 PM EDT
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Senator Chris Dodd, a senior member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, wrote to the chair of the National Governor's Association and all 50 governors urging them to defy the Bush administration's proposed changes to the SCHIP program, which would affect health care coverage for millions of children:As you know, Governor Jon Corzine of New Jersey recently announced that he will defy President Bush's rules intended to prevent states from covering more of the nation's 9.4 million uninsured children through the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). I am urgently calling upon you as Chair of the National Governors' Association (NGA) to join him and, indeed, urge all of your members to follow Governor Corzine's lead in defying these onerous rules.
The SCHIP program is the only success story in health care for working families since the failure to pass universal health care in 1994, providing coverage to 6.7 million children. [....]
It is unconscionable that at a moment when more than 9 million children from poor-to-middle class families have nowhere to turn for health care that the Bush Administration would restrict the number of children who can access this successful program they desperately need by preventing children with family incomes more than two-and-a-half times the poverty level from qualifying for assistance. In a letter to President Bush last week, Governor Corzine went a step further and threatened legal action:I ask you to reconsider your position given the critical importance of this issue. Please also know that I am prepared, if necessary, to pursue legal action to further the goal of protecting our most vulnerable children. Luckily, it appears that there has been a breakthrough compromise reached today in the Congress on the SCHIP legislation, and Senator Menendez, who fought to defeat an amendment that would have eliminated coverage for 3,000 New Jersey children, is tentatively optimistic:"I am in the process of reviewing full details of this final bill, but initial indications are very positive. What we have is a deal that will keep millions of American children and families from being pushed into the ranks of the uninsured. Our state in particular has many thousands of children and families who don't qualify for Medicaid but also can't afford private health insurance, and they have nowhere else to turn. [...]
"As the president continues his stubborn and uncompassionate veto threat on this bill, I will continue to stand up for the millions of children that he is turning his back on." |
| Juan Melli :: Sen Dodd Asks Governors to Follow Corzine's Lead; Defy Bush on Kids' Health Care Cuts |
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