Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007

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

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Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Madam Speaker, today we are dealing with a bill that supposedly is a fix of the previous legislation that has been vetoed. We are all entitled to our opinion, but we should rely on a body that gives us the facts, and that is the Congressional Budget Office. I would like to look at some of those facts.

First of all, there is supposed to have been a fix on the issue of illegal immigration. CBO still estimates that there will be $3.7 billion of increased Federal spending and complementary State spending that will total some $6.5 billion of additional spending because of this change as it relates to the immigration issue over the next 10 years, and an additional 100,000 adults will gain eligibility because of this section.

The questions that ought to be asked are the two questions that were put to the staff of the Social Security Administration, because if we are going to allow Social Security numbers to be used as identification, these ought to be the questions. They were said to the staff. And the question is: Would the name and Social Security number verification system in this bill verify that the person submitting the name and the Social Security number is who they say they are?

The answer: No.

Second question: Would the name and Social Security verification system in this bill prevent an illegal alien

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from fraudulently using another person's valid name and matching Social Security number to obtain Medicaid and SCHIP benefits?

The answer: No.

The authors of this bill also claim there is a fix on the issue of adults in SCHIP. The fact that CBO still projects that up to 10 percent of the enrollees in SCHIP will be adults, not children, in the next 5 years, and money for poor children shouldn't, in my opinion, go to cover adults.

The fix on the issue of crowd-out. The CBO still estimates there will be some 2 million people who will lose their private health insurance coverage and become enrolled in a government-run program.

Then the fix relating to the enrollment of higher income children. CBO estimates there will only be some 800,000 who are currently eligible for SCHIP who will be enrolled in the next 5 years, but an additional 1.1 million people with incomes that are not currently eligible for SCHIP will be enrolled in the program.

I urge a ``no'' vote.

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