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Sen. Cornyn Votes To Expand SCHIP, Cover Texas’ Low-Income Children First

Also offers amendment focusing efforts and funding on children who need it most

WASHINGTON—In an effort to focus on enrolling millions of children eligible but not enrolled in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, today voted for Kids First, which was offered as an amendment to S. 2, the SCHIP bill currently before the Senate. It targets low-income children first and significantly increases funding currently available to Texas. The measure was ultimately blocked by Senate Democrats.

“SCHIP was created with the noblest of intentions, to cover low-income children whose families did not qualify for Medicaid but who could not afford private health insurance. Unfortunately, there are too many children today who are eligible for CHIP that are not enrolled. I strongly believe that before we consider expanding the scope of this program, as the present bill does, we need to focus on the currently eligible population of low-income children. That's why I joined with a number of my colleagues in supporting an alternative known as Kids First. It focuses on the original intent of SCHIP, and that is to cover low-income children,” Sen. Cornyn said today on the Senate floor.

Despite the setback, Sen. Cornyn pledged to work in a bipartisan fashion to ensure low-income children are a priority in the final legislation. He offered an amendment to S. 2 that would make sure redistributed funds go toward coverage of low-income children, and outreach and enrollment efforts. As drafted, the bill rewards states for exceeding their budget, even if they spend outside of the original intent of the program. Currently, there are 19 shortfall states that receive redistributed funds. Of those 19, nine of them had expanded their SCHIP programs for children beyond 200 percent of the federal poverty level. Senate Democrats also blocked this amendment.

“To improve the bill and to focus on low-income children, I've offered this amendment that prohibits redistributing funds to states that have expanded their SCHIP program to higher income families or adults … Redistributed funds should be reserved for covering low-income children, to assist states with specific outreach and enrollment activities that will help enroll large numbers of low-income children who are eligible but not enrolled. We have a choice. We can either focus on low-income children or we can choose to expand the program and leave many low-income children behind,” Sen. Cornyn concluded.

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