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Healthy Communities: Faith Communities Support Big Win for Children |
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The Victory
The Senate passed a State Children's Health Insurance program (SCHIP)
reauthorization bill with a 68-31 veto-proof majority. The bill would
provide health coverage to 4.1 million children who would otherwise be
uninsured. All Democrats and 18 Republicans voted in favor of the bill.
Success in Senate comes a day after the House passed a larger bill
225-204 that would cover more than 5 million uninsured children.
CCO
thanks Sen. Kit Bond, Sen. Claire McCaskill and Representative Emmanuel
Cleaver for their support of this important piece of legislation.
"While there is still work to do for the children who will remain uninsured," said Jerry Jones, CCO leader. " I think we can all recognize this is an amazing achievement."
For more than one year, CCO leaders, along with one million families and clergy from across the country have build what is now PICO
National Network's "Cover all Children" Campaign which supports the
reauthorization and full funding of the State Children's Health
Insurance program (SCHIP).
"This
proves that our votes, along with our voice, really do count, " Jones
added. "When those two are put together, change happens."
CCO and the PICO
National Network also partnered with a wide range of child advocacy,
labor, faith and health organizations to make the case to cover
uninsured children. Our network has been blessed by strong local and
national allies, including Georgetown Center
for Children and Families, First Focus, Center on Budget Policy and
Priorities, Sojourners, National Council of Churches and the New
England Alliance for Children's Health/Community Catalyst. |
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Next Steps
House
and Senate leaders will begin almost immediately to negotiate the
differences between the House bill and the Senate bill . What members
of Congress hear when they go home on recess will play an important
role in how they resolve their differences. We still have two months of
hard work in front of us before the SCHIP program ends on September 30.
Our
ability to put intense pressure on members during the August recess
will shape what the final legislation looks like and reduce the chance
that it will be vetoed by the President.
The
biggest differences between the House and Senate bills are (1) the
House bill would cover an additional one million uninsured children;
(2) the House bill includes the option for states to cover documented
immigrant children; (3) the House bill relies not just on Tobacco
Taxes, but also on reducing overpayments to insurance companies, to
fund children's health; and (4) the House bill includes other policy
changes, mostly related to improving Medicare, that are unrelated to
children's health.
The
biggest political issue will be Medicare Advantage cuts. One key thing
to remember on this issue is that the AARP - the leading national
organization of senior citizens - strongly supported the House bill as
being good for seniors. So while we will no doubt hear a lot about how
we cannot cover more children because it would come at the expense of
the elderly, in reality the primary interest groups at work here are
private HMO's, health insurance companies and the tobacco industry, not
the elderly.
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Take Action
Call: The toll free 877.367.5235 number is still open. Congratulate congressional members who voted for
SCHIP. Urge congressional members who voted against SCHIP, to vote for
children when the House-Senate Conference Agreement comes back for a
vote in September.
Write: OP ED pieces or send letters to the editor. Click here to send a letter to the editor
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