Contact: John McHugh

Blog: Floor Statement in Support of SCHIP

	Capitol

Washington, Jan 23 - I submitted the following statement into the Congressional Record after I voted in support of H.R. 2, the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (SCHIP) last week:

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2, the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009. Given the importance of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to my constituents, I am pleased that the House is working to extend SCHIP through Fiscal Year 2013.

Every bill that works its way through Congress has provisions that are less than ideal and this bill is no exception. Clearly, if given the opportunity, I would write much of this bill in a different way. That opportunity, of course, will not materialize.

However, accessibility to quality health care is one of the great challenges we face as a nation. It is a particularly acute problem in Northern and Central New York, which I have the privilege of representing. According to one source, there are currently over 400,000 children without health insurance in New York State.

The importance of the SCHIP program to my district is hard to overstate. In fact, nearly 20,000 children in the eleven counties I represent are currently enrolled in the Child Health Plus as the SCHIP program is known in New York State.

The bill before the House today would strengthen and expand the SCHIP program by providing an additional $35 billion over the next four and a half years. As a result of this increase in funding, an additional 4 million children – 267,000 in New York State - are projected to be enrolled in the program, thereby ensuring that a total of 11 million children nationwide have access to health care. Thus, I will support this measure.