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McConnell: ‘Republicans are committed to making sure every child has access to affordable health insurance’
from the Office of Senator Mitch McConnell
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday regarding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Later this morning the Senate is expected to vote on the ‘Kids First Act’ amendment:
“This morning, the Senate will return to debate on children’s health insurance legislation. I think we had a good day of debate yesterday.
“I know that Members of both parties were participating in important committee business for much of the day. I want compliment Senators Coburn and Burr for the outstanding job they did managing Republican time while our Finance Committee colleagues were occupied at a mark-up.
“Republicans are committed to making sure every child has access to affordable health insurance. But there are some pretty important differences between Republicans and Democrats in how you get there.
“Today, the Senate will vote on our Republican alternative, the Kids First Act.
“Just to remind my colleagues, the Kids First Act refocuses the SCHIP program on its intended purpose – providing insurance to low-income, uninsured children.
“The Kids First Act closes a number of loopholes and gimmicks that are being used to expand the definition of ‘low income’ to families making $88,000 per year. I don’t know anyone in Kentucky who would characterize $88,000 as ‘low-income.’
“Some states have used SCHIP to cover adults, even when thousands of eligible low-income children are still lacking coverage. Let me repeat that – insurance for children is being used instead for adults. That’s wrong and the Kids First Act would ban such practices.
“The CBO reports that our legislation will provide coverage to nearly 2 million low-income children who currently lack health insurance. And it does so in a fiscally responsible manner without raising taxes.
“I know that many of my Republican colleagues also have commonsense ideas to improve this legislation.
“Republicans understand that taxpayer resources are too scarce to be squandered away by waste, fraud, or abuse. And Republicans are prepared to offer amendments to fix these problems and make the bill better.
“For example, one provision of the bill allows a select few states to expand coverage to more than three times the federal poverty level. We don’t think it is fair to provide special treatment to certain states, and we expect an amendment to address that.
“The bill also provides government health insurance to 2.4 million kids who already have health insurance. Republicans believe those kids should be able to keep the coverage they have and we’ll have amendments let kids who already have health insurance keep that coverage, freeing up more resources for more kids in need.
“Just as working families are trying to get the most out of every dollar, Republicans believe government needs to do the same by rooting our waste, fraud, and abuse in all its programs, including Medicaid and SCHIP.
“These are just a few of the ideas that we will be discussing today and tomorrow as the Senate continues this very important debate.”
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