Claims victory in denying 10 million children coverage

“We won this round on SCHIP.”

– White House Spokeswoman Dana Perino [October 18, 2007]

The White House claimed victory by helping to defeat a bipartisan compromise that would have provided health insurance coverage to 10 million children.

If “winning” means preventing 10 million children from getting health care coverage, then the White House is out of touch with the will of the American people.

· 81 percent of Americans favor expanding the state children’s health insurance program. Of those that support the bill, 74 percent would be willing to pay higher taxes to cover the measure. [CBS News Poll, 10/17/07]

· 273 House members – including 44 Republicans – voted to override the president’s veto and provide health care coverage to 10 million children.

· 67 Senators – including 18 Republicans – support the bipartisan children’s health insurance bill.

· More than 270 organizations, including AARP, American Medical Association, America’s Health Insurance Plans, March of Dimes, PhRMA, Easter Seals, Catholic Health Association and Families USA, support the expansion of the children’s heath insurance program to cover 10 million children.

The President and his allies in Congress today may have stopped the SCHIP bill today, but we still will not allow that to deter us from our goal, which is to insure 10 million children in America.

In the next two weeks, we intend to send the President another bill that provides health care for 10 million children in our country.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 19th, 2007 at 8:56 am by Office of the Speaker and is filed under Affordable Health Care. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.