[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 156 (Tuesday, October 16, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S12929]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                  CHIP

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, a few weeks ago, in this Chamber, we passed 
the Children's Health Insurance Program and passed it by a big 
majority, passed it bipartisanly, when almost two dozen Republicans 
joined, I believe, all the Senate Democrats in passing a program that 
has worked for 10 years.
  I was in the House of Representatives when we initially wrote the 
Children's Health Insurance Program. It was written by a Democratic 
President, with a Republican House and a Republican Senate. It has 
worked splendidly for the last 10 years. It has, in fact, provided 
health insurance for literally millions and millions of American 
middle-class families--families making a little bit too much to qualify 
for Medicaid but families either not earning quite enough to buy 
insurance or not working in a place that offers insurance at a decent, 
reasonable rate. We know the children who are in the Children's Health 
Insurance Program are sons and daughters of working parents--again, 
working parents overwhelmingly making between about $20,000 and $50,000 
a year.
  The Senate passed the Children's Health Insurance Program expansion, 
which would have meant, in addition to the 6.6 million children in our 
country receiving health insurance under the Children's Health 
Insurance Program today, it would have added about another 4 million 
American children. About 200,000 children in my State--from Ashtabula 
to Hamilton, from Wauseon to Marietta--now receive coverage under the 
Children's Health Insurance Program. This would have added tens of 
thousands more to the Children's Health Insurance Program.
  Unfortunately, a couple weeks ago, the President of the United States 
decided to veto this legislation even though it passed with more than 
four dozen Republican votes in the House joining almost every Democrat 
and passed with almost two dozen Republican votes in the Senate.
  I wish the President, before he vetoed this legislation, had done 
what a lot of us did. I know the Presiding Officer from Missouri has 
done this. So many of us have talked to families in our States. I have 
talked to families in Lima and in Canfield and in Columbus and in 
Dublin and in Springfield about what the Children's Health Insurance 
Program means to them.
  Eleven-year-old Tanner Stainbrook of Toledo has cystic fibrosis. Both 
of his parents work. They are playing by the rules, working hard, and 
paying their taxes. But without CHIP, without the Children's Health 
Insurance Program, Tanner cannot get the care he needs.
  Seth Novak is a 3-year-old boy who lives in Lebanon, OH, down in the 
southwest corner of the State near Cincinnati. Seth has Down's syndrome 
and needs the Children's Health Insurance Program to help him stay 
healthy. Again, his parents are working, but they simply cannot get the 
insurance, in part, as with many of these children, because of a 
preexisting condition and also because of the finances the family faces 
and the lack of health coverage.
  Emily Danko of Columbus also has Down's syndrome. Without CHIP, Emily 
has no health insurance.
  I wish the President had talked to the Stainbrook family and the 
Novak family and the Danko family and talked to them about their 
situations. I am not sure he would have vetoed this bill if he had done 
that.
  Unfortunately, the President made the decision to veto this bill. 
When he did, he mentioned several things. I would like to briefly touch 
on what he said and what the truth really is.
  The President of the United States said this will result in all kinds 
of families shifting their children from private health insurance to 
Government health insurance. Were it so that all those families he 
talks about had private health insurance--if they all had private 
health insurance--we would not be concerned about this Children's 
Health Insurance Program. But the fact is, most of these families--the 
overwhelming majority of these families--who will be on this Children's 
Health Insurance Program expansion are not getting private insurance or 
they are getting very inadequate private insurance.
  The President said families making up to $80,000 a year could get 
this insurance. That is patently untrue. If a State wants to do that, 
they have to apply to the Federal Government, and the President has 
already said no to the State of New York. He could say no to other 
States. So that is clearly, simply not true.
  The President also said the Children's Health Insurance Program is 
just too expensive--a $7 billion-a-year increase over the next 5 years; 
$7 billion a year to insure 4 million children a year; $7 billion a 
year contrasted with what we spend on the war in Iraq: $2.5 billion a 
week; $7 billion a year for 4 million children versus $2.5 billion and 
climbing per week for a war we never should have been in, a civil war 
the President continues to immerse our Nation in, with no plan to end.
  The last thing the President said is this program is socialized 
medicine, that we are going down the path of socialized medicine. The 
President forgets to say he and many Members of Congress get health 
care from Bethesda--go out to Bethesda and get their health care, with 
Government doctors taking care of Members of Congress and the 
President.
  The President also forgets to mention that when he calls it 
socialized medicine, that, in fact, this legislation was supported 
bipartisanly 10 years ago in a Republican House, Republican Senate, and 
with a Democratic President--hardly socialized medicine supported by 
that many conservative Republicans back then and today. This 
legislation is supported by 68 Senators, including 18 Republicans; is 
supported by 43 Governors, including 16 Republicans; is supported by 
more than 270 organizations, representing millions of Americans.
  The beauty of this legislation is for 10 years it has worked for 
America's children. And 6.6 million children have insurance today 
because of the Children Health Insurance Program. We can expand this 
program at the cost of about $3.50 a day to cover a child through the 
Children's Health Insurance Program, and do that for 4 million 
children. It makes sense for our children, it makes sense for our 
communities, and it makes sense for our country.

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