SCHIP Vote Soon! Call your Reps TODAY!
Posted in Economic Justice, Health on 13. Jan, 2009
From the Coalition on Human Needs:
Congress plans to vote on children’s health this week! Make sure no kid falls through the cracks – Call your Representative & Senators TODAY!
Dial 1-800-828-0498* and ask to speak to your Representative and Senators’ offices.
Tell them: Support reauthorizing SCHIP so millions of uninsured children can get health coverage and remove restrictions delaying coverage for children in need.
Background:
The new Congress has decided to take swift action on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), the same program President Bush vetoed twice last year. This legislation expands health care for kids who are in working families that make too much to qualify for Medicaid, but who don’t make enough to afford private insurance.
The House of Representatives could vote as early as tomorrow, January 14. The Senate will soon follow. Once this happens, we hope the two chambers will reconcile their differences quickly – and it should land on the President’s desk soon.
It is critical Congress act quickly. With our economy in crisis, SCHIP is more important than ever. More than 1 million children have lost their health coverage because their parents were laid off and lost their employer-based coverage over the past year. The proposed legislation would provide essential health coverage to those kids already enrolled in the program and allow an additional 4 million children to qualify for coverage.
It is also important that Congress pass an SCHIP bill that addresses existing inequities in our health care system. Currently, legal immigrant children and pregnant women must wait five years before they become eligible for federally funded Medicaid and SCHIP. Congress should include the “Legal Immigrant Children’s Health Improvement Act” (ICHIA) in SCHIP reauthorization to remove this arbitrary waiting period. No child should have to wait five years for basic health care.
*Toll-free and action alert language provided by our friends at Families USA
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