LANSING – State Representative Barb Byrum (D-Onondaga) today co-sponsored a House resolution calling on the U.S. Congress to take action by overriding President George W. Bush's veto of the State Children's Health Care Program (SCHIP). SCHIP is a federal program that provides insurance coverage to targeted low-income children who are uninsured but not eligible for Medicaid.
"As lawmakers, we must protect the health and lives of our most vulnerable citizens – innocent children," Byrum said. "To turn our backs on the uninsured children across Michigan and the U.S. would be unconscionable. I strongly support overriding this reprehensible veto."
Since 1997, the SCHIP program has allocated more than $40 billion in children's health insurance funding to states to expand its Medicaid program or to implement a combined program relying on Medicaid and separate private plans. The bipartisan S-CHIP bill was recently passed by the U.S. House and Senate, and then vetoed by President Bush. The measure that was vetoed would have added $35 billion over the next five years to cover 10 million children across the U.S.
Michigan uses SCHIP funds to administer the MI Child program, which provides insurance coverage to approximately 55,000 children throughout the state each year, as well as 65,000 very low income adults under the Adult Benefits Waiver. MI Child covers regular check ups, shots, emergency care, dental care, pharmacy, hospital care, prenatal care and delivery, vision and hearing, mental health and substance abuse, and other vital areas for our kids. Since MI Child started in 1997, the number of uninsured children declined by 26.6 percent, resulting in nearly 79,000 more children having health care coverage than 10 years ago.
"In addition to the importance of providing health care for our children, significantly reducing the number of the uninsured population in Michigan will help alleviate the financial burden currently placed on individuals and businesses that provide or have health care coverage," Byrum said. "Overriding this veto is the right thing to do for our kids, our state and our economy."