[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 45 (Thursday, March 15, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3154-S3155]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   STATE CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE

  Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, some years ago, the distinguished and late 
great Senator from the State of Minnesota, Hubert H. Humphrey, said the 
following when he was talking about how we should evaluate budgets in 
government. He said:

       The moral test of a government is how it treats those in 
     the dawn of life, those in the shadows of life, and those in 
     the twilight of life.

  I rise today to speak of those in the dawn of their lives--children 
across America and especially the children of working families, working 
families who have no health insurance.
  Unfortunately, despite good intentions and despite a good program I 
will be speaking about this morning, there are 9 million American 
children with no health insurance at all--9 million children. That is a 
blot on the American conscience--or should be--that there are 9 million 
children who have no health insurance at all. Justice cannot abide 9 
million children in America with no health insurance.
  That is the bad news. The good news is that we have a way to bring 
some relief to those children, to their families, and to the American 
economy. It is called the State Children's Health Insurance Program, 
known by the acronym SCHIP. So when I refer to SCHIP by that acronym, I 
am speaking of that program, the State Children's Health Insurance 
Program.
  Here is what this program does, and it bears repeating because of the 
broad coverage that important program provides to children across 
America. It provides comprehensive health insurance coverage to up to 6 
million American children. It is financed jointly by State governments 
and the Federal Government. Currently, that program

[[Page S3155]]

costs the Federal Government just over $5 billion per year--a very 
small price to pay in a huge Federal budget with all the return you get 
from that investment for our children. Remember what this program is: 
It is a program that covers the children of working families, those 
families whose incomes are too high to be covered by Medicaid and whose 
incomes are too low to have the coverage that is provided in the 
private market. That is what we are talking about. We are talking about 
families who are squeezed in between and who cannot afford coverage in 
the private market but also don't qualify for Medicaid.
  In Pennsylvania, my home State, I am honored and proud to say that my 
father, Governor Casey, when he was the Governor of Pennsylvania, 
signed into law one of the first children's health insurance programs 
in the Nation in 1992. Since that time, not only in Pennsylvania but 
especially in our State, we have had broad bipartisan support for this 
program from Republican Governors and Democratic Governors. Currently, 
Governor Rendell is trying to expand the Children's Health Insurance 
Program in Pennsylvania. That is a good thing because even though it 
covers as many as 150,000 Pennsylvania children, there are still over 
130,000 children in the State of Pennsylvania who have no coverage. The 
Governor wants to attack that problem and reduce that number. 
Unfortunately, this Governor of Pennsylvania, Governor Rendell, as well 
as Governors across the country, in both parties, are unable to expand 
their programs if the budget proposal set forth by the President 
becomes the law.
  Here is what the Bush budget does when it comes to the State 
Children's Health Insurance Program, and I am quoting from a report by 
the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: ``The Bush budget provides 
less than half''--less than half--``of the funding needed for States to 
maintain existing caseloads.'' What we are talking about there is, 
going forward in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012, in those budget 
years, the President's budget provides less than half the money to 
maintain the coverage for those approximately 6 million children who 
have coverage. This doesn't even address the problem I started with 
this morning, the 9 million children who don't have any health care 
coverage at all.

  We have to do two things. We have to make sure we maintain the 
coverage for the 6 million children who have it in America across the 
country in almost every State in the country. They are not divided by 
Democrat and Republican; they are children and their families, and they 
are part of the family of America. We have to make sure we maintain 
their coverage. At the same time, we have to expand coverage to begin 
to cover the 9 million who have no health insurance coverage at all.
  What is the effect of this budget on these families? The Bush budget 
has a funding shortfall over 5 years of $7 billion. That is a big 
number, but let us talk about that in terms of children. That is the 
most important thing here. That $7 billion shortfall equates, by 2012, 
to 1.4 million children losing their coverage. We are still on problem 
No. 1, those who have coverage who will lose it--1.4 million of them--
if this budget goes through. That is what we are talking about when we 
talk about this budget and this important program. But we have to make 
sure we do more than just maintain coverage; we have to make sure we 
expand it for the millions of children who don't have health insurance.
  I wish to conclude this morning with a couple of basic questions for 
the President, for the Senate, and for the House. This is what every 
elected official in Washington has to answer when they vote on this 
budget and when they vote on the question of the State Children's 
Health Insurance Program.
  Question No. 1 for the President and for the Congress: Does the 
administration and the Congress want 1.4 million children to lose their 
health insurance coverage? You can't have it both ways. If you vote for 
the President's proposal, you are voting to cut 1.4 million kids from 
the insurance rolls. That is question No. 1, and it is a ``yes'' or 
``no'' answer. There is no dodging that question.
  Question No. 2: Are tax breaks for millionaires and multimillionaires 
and billionaires more important than the State Children's Health 
Insurance Program? Do they have a higher priority? Do their needs come 
ahead of the children of working parents?
  That is another question we have to answer because there will be 
people in this town who will talk about the cost of expanding health 
insurance coverage or even maintaining the coverage that is there. They 
will say: Oh, that is going to cost lots of money. Well, I have to ask 
them a basic question: Are the millionaires and billionaires who have 
benefited year after year to the tune of hundreds of billions of 
dollars--is their tax cut more important than children? It is a ``yes'' 
or ``no'' answer, and that is what the Congress and the President have 
to answer.
  Finally, No. 3, the basic question for today, tomorrow, but 
especially for many years from now: Do you want the gross domestic 
product to grow? Do you want the American economy to grow? Because if 
you answer that question ``yes,'' you cannot oppose the expansion of 
the State Children's Health Insurance Program. You cannot. We know the 
benefits of providing health insurance to children. We know they will 
go to school ready to learn. We know they will be healthier in school, 
they will get higher test scores, and they will have the benefit of 
higher education, hopefully, for many of them, and they will go on to 
achieve their full potential in the job market and help grow the 
American economy. So if you care about the economy today, tomorrow, and 
into the future, and you care about growing jobs, you must vote, in my 
judgment, to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program.
  Finally, it is about coverage. It is about maintaining that coverage, 
and it is about making sure 9 million kids have health insurance in the 
future. It is also making sure we do everything possible to reach every 
child and make sure that child's family is utilizing the great services 
of the State Children's Health Insurance Program. If we meet this 
obligation to cover the kids who are covered now, to make sure their 
coverage is maintained, and to cover the 9 million children, we will 
have gone a long way toward meeting Hubert H. Humphrey's moral test of 
government: to make sure we are taking care and helping children in the 
dawn of their lives.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  Mr. PRYOR. Mr. President, how much time do we have remaining?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority controls 22 minutes in morning 
business.
  Mr. PRYOR. I thank the Chair.

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