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SOS: Save our SCHIP

by Lynn

In the “My day on Capitol Hill” post last week, I blogged about traveling with hundreds of Easter Seals advocates to talk to our legislators in Washington, D.C. Our goal was to encourage Congress to override President Bush’s veto of the State Children’s Health Insurance Plan (SCHIP) legislation.

By now you’ve heard — the House did not have the votes to override the President’s veto last week.

The failure to override the SCHIP veto was disappointing, of course. But still, I feel our day on Capitol Hill was NOT wasted. We feel really great about our effort and remain hopeful that a final SCHIP bill will become law.

Our visit to Capitol Hill put Easter Seals on the minds of our legislators. Speaker Nancy Pelosi mentioned Easter Seals several times in her statement to close the debate last week.

This morning, breaking news came in: the House of Representatives will vote TODAY on revised SCHIP legislation. Contact your representative now and ask them to vote in favor of this legislation today. The reauthorization of SCHIP is a priority for many human service and health organizations. Easter Seals, along with other advocacy organizations, encourages you to contact your legislators.


 

Comments may not reflect Easterseals' policies or positions.


  1. Katy Beh Neas Says:

    October 26th, 2007 at 11:11 am

    There has been a lot of inaccurate information floating around about what is in the SCHIP bill. I hope I can put some of these concerns to rest. First, no child living in a family making $83,000 is currently enrolled or is elibigle for SCHIP benefits. More than 90 percent of children currently served living in families making less than $41,000 for a family of four. In addition, a child has to uninsured for a period of time before the child can be enrolled in SCHIP. The SCHIP legislation currently before Congress would continue to provide health insurance coverag to the 6 million children currently enrolled and would extend coverage to an additional 3.8 million children who are currently eligible but not enrolled. As a parent, you know the value of having health insurance and not having to make difficult choices between paying the rent and paying for the tests she needs. Easter Seals hopes that every parent is in the position to have health insurance coverage for their children. For those families who cannot provide insurance coverage for thier families because they do not have the finanicial resources, we hope that the government can help so that every child grows up healthy and independent.

  2. C. C. Waters Says:

    October 26th, 2007 at 12:40 am

    SCHIP
    Hi I have a few points about SCHIP that I would like to make.
    My current employer provides health care for me and my family it is one of the benefits of working where I do. But just a few short years ago I was working for a small company that did not provide any health care benefits. I was making less than 21K annually and there was no way I could afford private insurance. SCHIP was a real blessing then. My son was covered even though I was not.
    I think most can agree 21K will not get much or go far. However when I was making 56k things were different. I did not look for government to provide for my family. Again my employer did not provide benefits downfalls of working for small companies. So I did the unthinkable. I sacrificed the new car, a few other wants and bought insurance for my son again I was not covered but he was.
    I have a hard time understanding this new SCHIP bill. I think it is socialized medicine and given the examples of socialized medicine in Canada or England I feel socialized medicine just don’t work. My daughter was just diagnosed with ONH I would not want to wait 2 to 3 years for her MRI and blood work to rule out hormonal problems that often occur with this congenital birth defect.
    Who decided that 83K was poverty requiring government sponsored socialized medicine. How someone making 83K could would or should look for a health care handout paid for by me and many other Tax payers making much less that this 83K is a question that is beyond me. I make 30K I own a home I have 2 children and I do not feel like I am living in poverty. Why do I have to FUND this with my tax dollars?
    I have heard the politicians talking about providing coverage to millions of children. The thing I have not heard is how many of those children they want to add to SCHIP already have insurance coverage? How many of these families will have to drop there current coverage and be placed on this socialized medicine program?
    From what I have seen and I have not read the massive bill myself only parts of it this is bad law and a big money hog. Why is it all of sudden it is critical to spend millions or even billions on this?I never asked then to expand this program. I never asked for my tax dollars to go for this. When I needed it I am glad it was there for me. Expanding it forcing families to drop there health coverage to be forced in to this socialized medicine well not a very good idea in my opinion.