[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 16]
[House]
[Pages 21888-21889]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




    HOUSE DEMOCRATS ADDRESS HEALTH CARE NEEDS OF AMERICA'S CHILDREN

  (Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute.)
  Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California. Mr. Speaker, 10 years ago, the 
Children's Health Insurance Program, better known as CHIP, was created 
as a partnership between the States and the Federal Government to 
ensure that more children would have access to health insurance. Over 
the last decade,

[[Page 21889]]

it has been received as a strong, bipartisan effort.
  The success of the program is not questioned. Thanks to CHIP, the 
number of uninsured children has decreased every year for the last 
decade, except for this past year when the number of children actually 
increased.
  This week, the House will vote on the CHAMP Act, a bill that 
strengthens the Children's Health Program so that it reaches nearly all 
of the children that are eligible for the program. Currently, CHIP 
reaches 6 million, but there are 6 million kids that aren't insured 
yet.
  Today, there is simply not enough funding to enroll more children. 
But that is going to change this week, when the House adds on an 
additional $50 billion over the next 5 years to the CHIP program. That 
will ensure that an additional 5 million children are insured.
  Let's once again act in a bipartisan fashion this week and pass the 
CHAMP Act.

                          ____________________