Press reports may be raising fears that American children will lose their health insurance because of a debate in Washington over renewing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

The President supports reauthorizing this important program for low income children with enough new funding to ensure that no one currently enrolled loses coverage.

His budget also calls for enough funding so that eligible children not already enrolled can be covered. But the Senate and House are each proposing bills calling for a massive expansion of the program to those in higher-income families, moving them from private insurance onto public assistance.

The President does not support those proposals, which would more than double SCHIP spending and extend eligibility to millions of children who already have private insurance or whose parents earn enough to afford private insurance.

Do we really want to force taxpayers to pay for government insurance for children whose parents earn $70,000 or $80,000 a year? That’s what this bill would do.

The bills proposed by Congress are not about helping low-income children; they’re about using SCHIP to stage a gradual government take-over of American health care. Some members of Congress have said publicly that this is what they intend, but neither the President nor the American people will stand for it.

Congress should stop trying to use SCHIP to provide coverage for those who can afford it on their own and concentrate on keeping its commitment to the low-income children SCHIP is meant to help.

Chris Downing
Regional Director
U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services
Atlanta, GA

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