Texas lawmakers took a big step forward this year by partially restoring state funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). But if Congress doesn’t fully fund the federal CHIP program (known as “SCHIP”), Texas kids still won’t get the coverage our legislators intended.
This week should see a full Senate vote on SCHIP and important decisions about the program in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. These congressional actions will determine funding for Texas' CHIP program for the next 5 years.
Texas is depending on continuation of and increased funding for SCHIP. In preliminary budget actions earlier this year, both houses of Congress voted to allocate an additional $50 billion over the next 5 years for SCHIP, and it’s vital that decisions in the House and Senate this week maintain that level of funding.
Created in 1997 with bipartisan congressional support, SCHIP has exceeded expectations in helping states move closer to the goal of covering all children. The federal law authorizing SCHIP is set to expire September 30, 2007. Until SCHIP is reauthorized, no new federal SCHIP funds will be available for federal fiscal year 2008 and the following fiscal years.
The original 1997 law authorized the same flat $5 billion every year for 10 years, so at the federal level SCHIP funding has not increased to account for population growth or inflation. Federal budget experts project that without additional funds, SCHIP enrollment nationwide will have to be cut by one-third, or by 1.5 million children by 2012.
More than any other state, Texas needs a strong CHIP reauthorization to allow our program, which has dropped by more than 200,000 children to recover, and then to grow with the population. CHIP is effective and saves the state money, yet the President is threatening to veto the developing legislation, claiming that it would expand the program dramatically, reduce private coverage of low-income children, and pave the way for "government-run health care."
For more information on SCHIP, visit http://gppi.georgetown.edu/hpi/ccf/schip/primer/
Take Action
Urge Texas senators and members of Congress to support full funding of SCHIP as promised in the budget earlier this year. Call lawmakers’ Washington, D.C., offices, or consider calling or visiting the district office near you.
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