Washington, DC (August 1, 2007) – Today, Rep. Rubén Hinojosa (D-TX) joined a majority in the House of Representatives in support of legislation that provides health care to 11 million low-income children and strengthens Medicare. The Children’s Health and Medicare Protection (CHAMP) Act was approved by a vote of 225-204.
“No child in Texas should have to go without access to reliable healthcare coverage,” said Hinojosa. “I am proud to report that today we are ensuring that 500,000 Texan children will have the medical care they deserve.”
In addition to protecting coverage for 6 million children nationwide, CHAMP would extend health care coverage to 5 million more low-income children, covering a total of 11 million children. CHIP was established on a bipartisan basis in 1997 by President Clinton and Congress, but must be reauthorized by September 30, 2007. If the program is not reauthorized by September 30, 6 million children nationwide could lose their health care.
The CHAMP Act also includes provisions to strengthen Medicare, control out of pocket costs for seniors and help ensure seniors have access to the doctors of their choice by stopping a scheduled 10 percent payment cut to doctors. Additionally, the legislation ends massive overpayments to private health organizations like HMOs and makes a series of preventative screenings free for Medicare beneficiaries. New free benefits under Medicare provided under the CHAMP Act include:
- diabetes screening tests
screening for glaucoma
an initial preventive physical examination
bone mass measurement
prostate cancer screening tests
colorectal cancer screening tests
mammography screening
pap smear screening
“The CHAMP Act will ensure that hard-working, low-income families do not go to bed at night worrying about a major sickness or injury striking,” concluded Hinojosa. “We are one step closer to providing more Americans access to high quality healthcare coverage.”