Washington, D.C. – Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) today vowed to bring up an amendment on the floor of the Senate during the SCHIP debate to fully fund the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) at $50 billion.  Kerry’s amendment will bring funding from $35 billion to $50 billion – the amount allotted in the budget – and bring coverage to at least 1.5 million additional uninsured children.

“President Bush this week spoke loud and clear that his Administration and his veto pen will stand in the way of more poor children getting health care. That’s wrong, and this Democratic Congress will make sure that insurance for kids will not fall victim to political games,” Senator Kerry said. “The fact that 9 million children in our country live without health care is unacceptable. I will bring this amendment to fund SCHIP to its fully allotted amount in the budget, and urge my colleagues to support this measure so we can establish a veto proof margin.”

The Finance Committee today included a Kerry amendment that achieves mental health parity for children enrolled in SCHIP.  Currently, discriminatory limits on mental health care are one of the main reasons that low-income children are unable to get necessary mental health services.  Kerry’s provision will make the coverage of mental health services equal with any other medical services.

Kerry will also continue to fight for his provision to lift barriers for legal immigrant children and pregnant women to access S-CHIP and Medicaid coverage.   The Kerry provision gives states the option to provide health coverage to legal immigrant pregnant women and children and allows states the means to best meet the needs of their populations.

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