Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, this amendment provides an additional 2
years of funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP.
I wish to especially thank Senators Brown, Wyden, Stabenow, Casey, and
Reid for their leadership on this amendment.

We have made great strides in recent years to ensure that Americans
of all ages have access to quality health care, but a huge part of this
success in increasing access for quality health care comes from CHIP,
which provides insurance to low- and moderate-income children and
pregnant women. We know CHIP works. The CHIP program serves more than 8
million children, including more than 115,000 in Colorado. This is
health care they might not otherwise have.

Unfortunately, the House failed to take full advantage of this moment
and this momentum for compromise and only extended funding for 2 years.
CHIP is authorized through 2019. This amendment would extend it for 2
additional years.

The very physicians who would be helped by fixing the SGR would also
see increased reimbursement when they treat these children instead of
seeing millions of them lose access to affordable, comprehensive
coverage.

I ask my colleagues to support this amendment.

I yield the floor.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source