Washington, DC - Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) today swiftly condemned President George W. Bush’s veto of legislation that would have provided vital health coverage for ten million low-income American children. The Children’s Health Insurance Program offers coverage to children whose parents do not qualify for Medicaid, but cannot afford private insurance. Baucus worked with Democratic and Republican colleagues in the Senate and in the House on the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act, a $35 billion agreement that would have preserved coverage for all 6.6 million children currently in the program, and extended coverage to nearly four million more low-income, uninsured American kids.
“It is a shame that the President did not step away from his threats against this children’s health bill. Let us be clear about what this veto means. The President is saying that millions of low-income, uninsured American children must continue to live with no health coverage while he presses his ideological concerns. He is willing to put the health of children in jeopardy just to get his way.
“Thankfully, a strong, bipartisan majority in both chambers of Congress sees what is at stake. CHIP works to get low-income, uninsured American children the doctor’s visits and medicines they need to stay healthy. Republicans and Democrats in the Senate and in the House know that the CHIP reductions advocated by the President will cut children off from health care. And so the Congress will work together, as we have all year on the Children’s Health Insurance Program, to override this ill-considered veto. In the coming days, we will do what the President has not done: we will stand up for American children in need."
Source: Ranking Member’s News
