Rockefeller: S-CHIP fight far from over

from The Allied News

By CHARLES OWENS
BLUEFIELD DAILY TELEGRAPH (BLUEFIELD, W.V.)

BLUEFIELD, W.Va. —

U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., is promising a fight on Capital Hill when it comes to resurrecting the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Rockefeller, who co-authored legislation that would reauthorize the federal CHIP program, said he was disappointed and angered by President Bush’s decision to veto the S-CHIP bill. The legislation would have expanded health insurance to millions of children.

However, the fight is far from over, Rockefeller said last week.

“I said many times that I didn’t believe the president would ever veto the CHIP bill,” Rockefeller said. “It is simply unconscionable that he did — and we need to do all we can to reverse this heartless move. In the Senate, we’ve got enough votes to override the President’s veto. In the House, we’re about 15 votes shy of a successful override.”

Rockefeller said he expects the debate over the S-CHIP program to continue this week.

“And when Congress returns next week, we’ll continue our fight to get everyone on board to expand health insurance to millions more children,” Rockefeller said. “The fight is far from over. We’re going to keep sending this bipartisan legislation back to the president — again and again — until he does the right thing by our nation’s children and working families.”

According to Rockefeller, about 90 percent of kids currently enrolled in the S-CHIP program are in families making $41,300 or less a year. Rockefeller said these same families cannot afford private health insurance.

Rockefeller said the president has been making incorrect claims about the S-CHIP program. For example, Rockefeller said Bush has alleged that the bill spends too much money, and that it will take kids out of private insurance and enroll them in a government-run health care program Those allegations are “simply untrue,” according to Rockefeller.

The veteran West Virginia lawmaker instead argues that the S-CHIP program is one of the most cost-effective public-private health insurance programs ever created.

The S-CHIP program has been helping children in West Virginia for more than a decade with health care needs, according to Rockefeller.

Charles Owens writes for the Bluefield (W.Va.) Daily Telegraph.