ALEXANDRIA, VA – Today, the U.S. House of Representatives joined the Senate in approving legislation to extend the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) for 18 months. If signed into law, the current SCHIP program will be extended until March, 2009, with retroactive funds allocated for the program from September 2007.
The plan has been included as part of the Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007 (S.2499). Under the act, the SCHIP program will be continued in its current form, and an allocation of an additional $1.6 billion will be provided to prevent states from running out of funds during 2008. This additional funding brings 2008 SCHIP funding to $6.6 billion, consistent with a recent federal report, which has indicated that $6.6 billion is required to ensure no state faces a funding shortfall in fiscal year 2008. If Congress had failed to take action, 21 states would have lacked the resources necessary to cover their projected SCHIP spending next year, leaving 1.4 million children and pregnant women without health coverage. The legislation will now go to the president’s desk for his signature. He is expected to sign the measure. Upon passage, First Focus President Bruce Lesley made the following comments:
“With the program on the brink of expiration, Congressional action to extend SCHIP through 2008 was essential to ensure that this highly successful program continues to insure millions of American children without any interruptions in coverage. Moreover, additional funds were necessary to guarantee no state lacked the resources to provide this coverage. We are deeply disappointed that the White House stood in the way of a real SCHIP reauthorization this year, vetoing two strong bills that won enormous bipartisan support in Congress. We commend Congress for their efforts to reauthorize the program and for ensuring that, despite the President’s objections, children covered under SCHIP will not lose coverage. Now, state health departments and Medicaid directors can comfortably begin planning for 2008, knowing they have the resources to cover all children currently enrolled in the program.
“However, we remain concerned that the absence of certain provisions in the bill will cause thousands of children to lose coverage. Specifically, the failure to include measures to repeal a directive issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on August 17, 2007. The directive includes a number of unattainable criteria that will result in hundreds of thousands of American children in as many as 23 states losing their health coverage through SCHIP. For instance, one criteria imposed upon states is that a child must be uninsured for a minimum of a one-year period before receiving SCHIP benefits. It is reprehensible to ask a child with cancer or a pregnant woman to wait one full year for health coverage, even if a parent dies or loses their job. This directive must be repealed as soon as possible as it is already having a detrimental impact on health coverage for children in states across this country.
First Focus also calls upon Congress to take early action in 2008 on a variety of consensus items around children’s health, including quality and data measures that should not have to wait another 15 months for passage. Furthermore, both parties and the president share in agreement that coverage for eligible but uninsured children should be the top priority. Congress should hold the president to his word and his campaign promises and pass legislation providing for outreach and enrollment funding and “Express Lane” enrollment measures to cover these children as soon as possible.
Congress should be applauded for its prompt passage of this bipartisan agreement. At this time, extending the program until 2009 is the best course of action for children. Common sense would indicate that a new president would not veto a bipartisan SCHIP bill, as President Bush did, especially when strongly supported by conservative Republicans such as Charles Grassley and Orrin Hatch as well as Nancy Pelosi and the overwhelming majority of Democrats.”