Statement of Congresswoman Mazie K. Hirono of Hawai‘i
in the U.S. House of Representatives
In support of the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007
September 25, 2007
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 976, the reauthorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
I believe our nation must show true compassion for the most vulnerable among us, and CHIP is a program that helps millions of low-income American children to receive health care so they can grow up in good health.
Since its creation in 1997, CHIP has been successful in providing vital health care coverage for children in families who cannot afford private insurance yet earn too much to qualify for Medicaid.
There are now 6.6 million children enrolled in the program.
Unless we act now, they are in danger of losing their health coverage, as CHIP expires on September 30th.
Leaders in the House and Senate have worked hard to bring this conference bill to the floor.
In supporting the conference bill, I want to note that the bill passed by the House earlier is a stronger bill in its coverage of more children in need and in eliminating the automatic cuts to Medicare reimbursements set to take effect in 2008 and 2009. Eliminating these automatic cuts was at the top of the list of needed legislation by medical and health care groups.
I am hopeful that we will address their concerns through another bill before the cuts go into effect.
I am also deeply disappointed that Senate Republicans insisted on the removal of provisions providing coverage for the children of legal immigrants. Such discrimination based on immigrant status should have no place in a bill providing health care to children.
While work remains to be done, I also want to point out that under this bill we would preserve the coverage of more than 20,000 children in Hawai‘i, and in addition 12,000 children in Hawai‘i who currently are uninsured would gain coverage.
We would preserve coverage for the 6.6 million children nationwide currently covered by CHIP and extend coverage to an additional 3.8 million children who are eligible for coverage but not enrolled. Thus passing this bill would provide health care coverage for more than 10 million American children.
A new report by Families USA indicates that during a 2-year period almost 35 percent of Americans under age 65 lacked healthcare insurance. Hawai‘i is better than average in this regard, but 29 percent of our state’s residents under age 65 still lacked insurance at some point during the past 2 years.
I support providing all Americans with high quality, affordable health care, and I hope that Congress will continue to move in that direction. But until we reach that goal, we should take steps that help our most vulnerable populations, including low-income children. This is precisely the group that CHIP will help, if we can get it reauthorized and signed into law.
I support CHIP because it is the compassionate, just, moral and the right thing to do. In fact, it is also highly cost-effective. It costs less than $3.50 a day to cover a child through CHIP. It would be far more expensive for taxpayers to leave these children uninsured and having to pick up the tab for indigent care in emergency rooms.
I urge my colleagues to vote for this bill.
