Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007

Floor Speech

CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - October 25, 2007)

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Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I thank Chairman Dingell.

I'm really pained when I listen to the last speaker and some of the comments that have been made on the other side, you know, calling this sincere effort by the Democrats, on a bipartisan basis with the Senate, to try to come up with something that we can get you on the other side of the aisle to support. You know, I heard words like ``baloney'' and ``bogus,'' and almost I think actual laughter. And it's a sad day when we laugh at this issue which is an issue of whether we're going to cover kids so that they don't have to go to an emergency room and can actually go to a doctor and get proper health care.

The Democrats, and this is again bipartisan where some Republicans and the Senate Republicans have gone out of their way to try to address the concerns that some of the Republicans have expressed, but the bottom line is that we can't change the fact that we want to cover additional kids, 10 million in total.

And when we know that the American people support this effort, what they support is covering more kids, those that are already eligible and not enrolled up to the tune of 10 million kids. Now, that's going to take $35 billion over 5 years. You can't get away from it.

And the President is saying, well, I can't support any new tobacco tax to pay for it; I'm going to pay for it out of the existing budget. Well, that's simply not possible. If you look at the budget, he's actually cutting Medicaid, and one of the things that this bill does is to stop those cuts in Medicaid so we can cover the kids that we have.

Now, we have tried very hard to address each of the three issues that the Republicans have raised, and the first one I'd like to talk about today is the issue of illegal aliens. There was never anything in this provision that allowed illegal aliens to be covered. We have made it absolutely clear in this new bill that that is the case and that they will not be covered. Anyone who suggests otherwise is just not being honest about this.

The second thing that we did, we tried to address the issue of adults. Single adults who are phased out after 2 years now under this bill will be phased out after 1 year, and even the parents, yes, they're also phased out I think over two or three years. So we're addressing that issue.

And then the third issue that was raised was the issue with regard to the income eligibility; and here, again, what we're saying is that if you go over 300 percent, okay, other than those that are already grandfathered into the program, you're no longer going to be able to cover those kids at that $82,000 or the other levels that they suggested.

Now, we've made an honest effort here to accomplish this, and all we're asking is that a few more of you come over to our side and join the Republicans in the Senate to vote for this legislation. This is an honest way to try to achieve a compromise that will allow us to cover these 10 million children.

Now, take this seriously. One of my colleagues said, well, this is Never, Neverland. This isn't Never, Neverland. We've had discussions with the Republicans. We've talked to you. Give us those votes so we can cover the kids.

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Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I continue to be upset by the Republican characterizations of this bill as a ``pig'' or the effort to trivialize what we do here today. I think it's very unfortunate we have gotten to that point.

There have been a lot of distortions on the other side from the Republicans. But the one that I have to correct today is the continued mention of the fact that this bill is not going to cover 10 million children or that somehow the CBO has said it's not 10 million but it's 7.4 million.

What they have neglected to point out is that the difference are the kids that we are going to enroll under Medicaid, and CBO has emphasized that over and over again. There are 7.4 million covered by SCHIP, but the addition up to the 10 is essentially covered by Medicaid. And those are the lowest income kids of all. This bill does the best job of making sure that those low-income children who are eligible for Medicaid and not enrolled would, in fact, get insurance.

The Republicans continue to forget and eliminate the fact that this bill also addresses the Medicaid program. There are a lot of kids at the very lowest end, less than 100 percent of poverty, who are not enrolled in Medicaid because there hasn't been the proper outreach to get them enrolled. So what we are doing here is providing for that outreach.

So don't tell me we're not covering 10 million children. We are. And the ones you are not mentioning are the lowest income of all.

And then I heard my colleagues talk about the illegal aliens again. Once again, we have put in provisions here that you have to verify whether it's through the Social Security Administration or it's through documentation. Now, there is probably some person to come and misrepresent who they are. But the fact of the matter is that the CBO says in that letter that was introduced by the gentlewoman from Ohio into the Record that virtually no one that's on this program is an illegal alien.

The fact of the matter is that the Republicans continue these distortions. There are no illegal aliens. There are 10 million children covered.

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