[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 18]
[Senate]
[Pages 23489-23490]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            SCHIP SHORTFALL

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, it is an interesting time to close a 
congressional session. We are about to consider a major spending bill, 
hundreds of billions of dollars, and a major tax bill that will have an 
impact on millions of Americans and scores of interest groups and 
businesses. It is interesting to see what the priorities are in the 
closing moments. We know that there will be many groups, particularly 
among businesses, that will be benefited by this tax bill. But it is 
interesting to me that in the list of priorities, sadly, there is a 
group that we are ignoring. That group, of course, is the children of 
this country, the children who don't have health insurance.
  Illinois started an ambitious program last year to make sure all kids 
in Illinois have health care insurance. It is surely the right thing to 
do. Most uninsured children with asthma never see a

[[Page 23490]]

doctor until they are hospitalized with an acute attack. One study 
found that kids without health care are 25 percent more likely to miss 
school. Another found that one in five children without health coverage 
needed glasses to see the chalkboard, but they didn't have any.
  It is certainly wise to give these children health insurance. One in 
four uninsured children uses the emergency room as their regular source 
of medical care. The Florida Healthy Kids Corporation reports that 
emergency room visits dropped 70 percent when uninsured children were 
given the opportunity to see a doctor in an office.
  Illinois's All Kids Program is ambitious, and it is working. But we 
can't do it alone. In 1997, the Federal Government made its first 
downpayment on a program for States to help make sure children have 
access to health care. The State Children's Health Insurance Program, 
known as SCHIP, began when Congress and the White House agreed that 
children in America should be able to see a doctor when they are sick, 
when they need to buy glasses to see the chalkboard or when they need 
to be protected from infectious disease. Today, 9 years later, after 
the first Federal payments were delivered, 10 million children in 
America are without health insurance.
  In Illinois, we are providing basic, bare-bones health care for 
122,700 low-income children through the SCHIP program. The State has to 
match the Federal money, but we couldn't do it without the Federal 
help. This year the Federal payments will run out before the bills are 
paid. In fact, we are told the SCHIP payment will be 60 percent of what 
the Federal payment needs to be to maintain the current caseload, not 
to expand it and bring in more uninsured children, just to cover those 
children who, without SCHIP, would have no health insurance.
  On Tuesday morning, the package that we are considering today 
included a bipartisan, no-cost provision to reallocate Federal SCHIP 
money so that Illinois and a dozen other States would be able to 
provide basic health insurance coverage for the kids already in the 
program. Twenty-four hours later, on Wednesday morning, after 
negotiations took place in the middle of the night, the SCHIP provision 
was gone. A lot of other things remained. There are still lots of tax 
provisions in there for special interest groups and businesses. Some of 
them are worthy. Some of them I support. But it is interesting that the 
first casualty of negotiation turned out to be 10 million uninsured 
children. They were left behind. Suddenly, low-income children in at 
least 11 States were dropped from this tax extender package. Merry 
Christmas from the United States Senate and the United States House of 
Representatives to these poor children who, because of our inaction and 
refusal to acknowledge the need for this program, have decided not to 
fund it.
  Suddenly the rug was pulled out from under 73,620 low-income kids in 
my State. SCHIP payments to Illinois to take care of these kids will 
fall short by $150 million. We made a promise to help these kids 9 
years ago. These kids are innocent children. All they are asking for is 
the basics--the chance to go to a doctor, a chance to get the shots 
they need so they can avoid serious illnesses, a chance to get the 
glasses they need to be good students in the classroom, just the 
basics. This Congress, in its efforts to adjourn, to go home and enjoy 
the holidays with our own children and our own families, has forgotten 
some kids across America who need help in the SCHIP program.
  I urge my colleagues not to give up on this issue. When we start to 
debate this tax extender bill in the hours ahead, I hope all my 
colleagues from affected States will come to the floor and will call to 
the attention of every Member of the Senate and the House of 
Representatives how we have failed in meeting this priority.
  I sincerely hope that if we are unable to restore these funds in 
these closing hours, that this will indeed be a high priority of the 
new Congress when it resumes its work in January of next year.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic leader.

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