Advocates Push for More Funding for Children's Health Care Program
Feature Story by Shayna Wareing - 4/4/2007
Without more funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) 600,000 children will be dropped from their health care coverage, according to a new report.
The Center for American Progress (CAP) released the report on March 21 just in time for Congress to consider reauthorizing the program. CAP's report calls for increased funding and estimates that SCHIP is short by $870-900 million.
The SCHIP program provides health coverage for children in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to afford private insurance.
"LCCR strongly believes that SCHIP's reauthorization is a priority of the first order," said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR). "Our children's health is too important and we must reauthorize this vital program and provide the necessary funds for it in the FY 2008 budget."
LCCR recommends that a minimum of $60 billion be budgeted for the program over the next five years and that it is included in the 2008 budget. According to a LCCR letter to the Senate Committee on the Budget, this amount will allow "states to maintain their commitment to current SCHIP enrollees, make significant progress toward reducing the number of uninsured children and help take this nation one step closer to eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in children's health."
According to the NAACP, 60 percent of uninsured children are members of a racial or ethnic minority group.
The report notes that SCHIP has helped to reduce the number of uninsured children by 30% since 1998, many of whom are minority children. The percentage of uninsured Latino children has dropped from 30 percent to 21 percent, from 20 percent to 12 percent for African-American children, and down to 8 percent from 17 percent for Asian-American and Pacific Islander children since SCHIP was created in 1997.
With renewal and recommended additional funding the SCHIP program will be able to provide access to health care to up to 70 percent of the 8.3 million uninsured American children.
On March 23, the Senate approved $50 billion for the SCHIP program over 5 years. "The U.S. Senate's approval today of $50 billion for SCHIP, and a recommendation by the House Budget Committee of an equal amount, is a clear signal that Congress has begun to address the national tragedy of more than 9 million children in this country without health coverage," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a national health care advocacy organization.
