Why CHAMP really matters, Mr. President
THE MOST frequent domestic concern I hear from my constituents is the skyrocketing increase in health-care costs for families and businesses.
THE MOST frequent domestic concern I hear from my constituents is the skyrocketing increase in health-care costs for families and businesses.
The high cost of health insurance is often too much for many middle-income families. Now, Congress has an answer for American families struggling with the cost of children's health insurance by passing the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act of 2007. CHAMP will ensure that children have access to insurance by strengthening our investment in the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
As a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, I helped write and pass this legislation. With it, we will not only be able to maintain coverage for the 6 million children now enrolled, but will expand access to 5 million more children.
It's long been my belief that providing affordable market-based health coverage to families should be a national priority. As a state senator, I worked closely with children's advocates, health-care experts, the insurance industry and people of all political stripes to create the Pennsylvania Children's Health Insurance Program.
Pennsylvania was on the cutting edge of smart, practical solutions involving partnership between the public and private sectors. Today, because of our efforts, Pennsylvania's CHIP provides the parents of more than 165,000 children, including 25,000 in Philadelphia and 7,500 in Montgomery County, the ability to purchase affordable health coverage for their kids.
The actions we took 15 years ago paved the way for other states and the federal government to create children's heath insurance plans. When I testified before the U.S. House on the success of the state's CHIP, it was clear to me that this model could be applied across the country. Congress then voted to establish the State Children's Health Insurance Program.
Today, CHIP is one the great success stories in U.S. healthcare. Nationally, more then 6 million children have access to health insurance under CHIP.
CHIP has always had strong bipartisan support, not only because of what it accomplishes, but also how it meets its goal of providing access to health insurance: taking a market-oriented approach, involving partnership between the federal government, states and the private sector.
CHIP is flexible, cost-effective and fiscally responsible. The changes Congress made just a week or so ago continue this flexibility while building on its past successes to extend coverage to millions more children.
And we know our choice to act, or not act, has consequences. Healthy kids thrive. Get better grades. Have a greater ability to concentrate. Recover from illness quicker. Are happier.
Uninsured children are far less likely to have regular access to a primary-care doctor and frequently go without needed routine and preventive care. They do less well in school and in other areas of their life. They are treated in expensive emergency rooms.
The House and Senate will meet soon to negotiate the details between the House-passed and Senate-passed bills. We expect that in early September we will send President Bush a strong children's health insurance bill to sign into law. Quick action will mean that 11 million children will have access to coverage.
The president has a choice.
He can follow through with his callous threat to veto this bill, compromising the health care of millions of children, or he can recognize that Congress is responding with a common-sense solution to meet the concerns of American families. *
Rep. Allyson Schwartz, a Democrat, represents parts of Philadelphia and Montgomery County.
