[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 40 (Monday, October 8, 2007)]
[Page 1298]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Message to the House of Representatives Returning Without Approval the 
``Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007''

October 3, 2007

To the House of Representatives:

    I am returning herewith without my approval H.R. 976, the 
``Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007,'' 
because this legislation would move health care in this country in the 
wrong direction.
    The original purpose of the State Children's Health Insurance 
Program (SCHIP) was to help children whose families cannot afford 
private health insurance, but do not qualify for Medicaid, to get the 
coverage they need. My Administration strongly supports reauthorization 
of SCHIP. That is why I proposed last February a 20 percent increase in 
funding for the program over 5 years.
    This bill would shift SCHIP away from its original purpose and turn 
it into a program that would cover children from some families of four 
earning almost $83,000 a year. In addition, under this bill, government 
coverage would displace private health insurance for many children. If 
this bill were enacted, one out of every three children moving onto 
government coverage would be moving from private coverage. The bill also 
does not fully fund all its new spending, obscuring the true cost of the 
bill's expansion of SCHIP, and it raises taxes on working Americans.
    Because the Congress has chosen to send me a bill that moves our 
health care system in the wrong direction, I must veto it. I hope we can 
now work together to produce a good bill that puts poorer children 
first, that moves adults out of a program meant for children, and that 
does not abandon the bipartisan tradition that marked the enactment of 
SCHIP. Our goal should be to move children who have no health insurance 
to private coverage, not to move children who already have private 
health insurance to government coverage.
                                                George W. Bush
 The White House,
 October 3, 2007.