Press Releases
Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami
202-226-7616
10/24/2007
Pelosi Statement Announcing Vote Tomorrow on New Children’s Health Insurance Legislation
“Good evening, thank you all for being here.
“Tomorrow, we will be taking up the SCHIP bill. The legislation will provide health care for
10 million of
“It’s supported by a bipartisan coalition, Democrats and
Republicans across the country.
Republican and Democratic governors support the SCHIP initiative. Every organization that you can name, from
the AARP to the YWCA, and everything in between, AMA, the Catholic Hospital
Association, Families First, are lobbying for the passage of this
legislation.
“We hope this time the President will sign the bill. The bill addresses all the concerns that were
expressed by our colleagues and by the President. It clarifies the language on the claim that
was made that people making $83,000 a year could receive SCHIP; that was
patently not true, and it is clarified in the legislation that it is not
so.
“It addresses who is eligible for the legislation and
clearly defines eligibility and that does not include illegal aliens. They are not entitled to benefits. In fact, you cannot get benefits in our
country unless you have been here for five years and legally so. The bill makes that very clear.
“The third category of complaint was that more adults were
receiving the benefits than should and the previous legislation phased out
adults receiving benefits over two years.
Those are adults that are members of families that are receiving
SCHIP. Over one year this new bill will
phase out those adults without children who are eligible to receive these
benefits in some states, as they have received the opportunity to do so in the
past.
“The focus is on the poor children. These are poor children. The poorest children
receive their health care through Medicaid.
Then just above that tier, the working poor families, the focus is there
and we’re very proud of the legislation.
“It honors the spirit of 10 million children, $35 billion
all paid for, no new deficit spending, pay as you go. And again, this is a clarification of the
legislation that we put forth to ensure these children. We are responding to some of the concerns
expressed by our colleagues and some clarification that we thought improved the
bill.”