[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 18]
[House]
[Pages 24685-24686]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




NEW BUSH ADMINISTRATION RESTRICTIONS TO THE CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE 
                                PROGRAM

  (Mr. ARCURI asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ARCURI. Mr. Speaker, last month the Bush administration dealt yet 
another blow to uninsured Americans, this time focused on millions of 
uninsured children in our Nation.
  New guidelines set forth by the administration require that children 
must go without health insurance for at least 1 year before States will 
be allowed to provide them with coverage under the Children's Health 
Insurance Program. The administration also requires States to enroll at 
least 95 percent of the children below 200 percent

[[Page 24686]]

of the Federal poverty level before they can provide health coverage to 
other low-income children, a standard that no State in the country can 
currently meet. The Bush administration is limiting the very 
flexibility that has made the CHIP program successful.
  Mr. Speaker, it is unconscionable for the President to require low-
income children to spend a year of their lives without health 
insurance, especially when we have a program in place that can provide 
them with the coverage they need today. It is time for the President to 
stop playing political games with the children's health care and to vow 
to work with us to strengthen, not weaken, the CHIP program.

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