BOSTON – At a rally today at the Martha Eliot Health Center in Jamaica Plain, Senator John Kerry and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick criticized President Bush’s threat to veto additional funding for the State’s Children’s Health Insurance Plan (SCHIP). Without the President’s signature, the program will expire on September 30 – putting the health coverage of six million low-income children nationwide, including more than 90,000 in Massachusetts, in jeopardy.

“Unless the President changes his mind, by the end of the month, six million children of the working-poor will be denied the right to see their family doctor when they're sick. That's wrong. American children shouldn't be forced to rely on crowded emergency rooms for their most basic health care needs.  Community Health Centers across Massachusetts and across the country are underfinanced, and it’s unfair to ask them to carry the burden of the misguided ideology of the Bush White House,” said Senator Kerry. “This President is apparently ready to kick low-income children out of the health insurance plans they depend on.  We'd like a president that puts children first—but we'd settle for one who doesn’t put children's health last.”

On Thursday, Kerry introduced a bipartisan bill with Senator Edward Kennedy to block the President’s cuts.  The bill specifically prohibits the implementation of rules put in place by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that would essentially prohibit states from providing quality health coverage to children whose family income is above 250% of the federal poverty level. This legislation revokes that policy and would allow states to cover children at income levels most appropriate for their state.

“The punitive policies of the Bush Administration threaten to leave the children of working poor families behind. Together we will fight to reverse this wrongheaded decision on behalf of Massachusetts and every state that wants better for its children,” said Kerry. 

Senator Kennedy said, “Once again, the Bush Administration has shown itself to be out of touch and out of step with the priorities of working Americans. The Children’s Health Insurance Program was passed to provide health coverage to all of our nation’s children- not just those the Administration chooses. This bill allows states to continue to have the flexibility to make the right decision for their children and will help secure coverage for children across the country. Partisan politics have no place in safeguarding the health of our children and I urge the Administration to listen to the will of the American people, and to Congress, and to put the needs of our children first.”

 
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