October 10, 2007
Thank you for contacting me in regard to the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) reauthorization bill otherwise known as H.R. 3162, the Children's Health and Medicare Protection (CHAMP) Act. I appreciate hearing your thoughts on this issue.
I agree with you that we need to ensure that American children and families receive the care they deserve by investing in health care. Approximately 6.2 million children are enrolled in SCHIP nationwide and 1.8 million are enrolled in Medicaid expansions.
On August 1, 2007, the House approved the CHAMP Act by a vote of 225-204. The new Congress worked hard to make SCHIP a priority and I was proud to vote for the passage of this bill which will allocate $50 billion to help reduce the number of uninsured children over the next five years.
As you may know, annual SCHIP allotments to the states are determined by using a formula that is based on a combination of the number of low-income children and low-income uninsured children in the state. This formula includes a cost factor that represents the average health service industry wages in the state compared to the national average. Like Medicaid, SCHIP is a federal-state matching program.
While Washington state has been a leader on providing quality health care for low income children, unfortunately, under the current federal rules regarding SCHIP, our state has lost almost $200 million to the federal government over the last decade. This money could have been used to cover thousands of uninsured kids in our state.
Washington and 10 other "qualifying" states have been penalized for expanding health insurance coverage to children in families with incomes over the poverty line through Medicaid prior to SCHIP enactment in 1997. These qualifying states have been prevented from using federal SCHIP funding to pay for children at income levels covered by Medicaid. Since enactment, they've had to fight every few years to spend 20 percent of their allotted federal funds to cover children at this income level. States that didn't cover these children a decade ago have had no such limitation on the use of federal SCHIP funds.
In addition to adjusting the formula for allotments, a permanent fix for this inequity was included in the CHAMP Act by allowing qualifying states to use 100 percent of their federal allotment. This fix will help reach out to more eligible families and dramatically increase coverage of previously uninsured children in Washington state.
The CHAMP act also contained other important provisions for Washington. The bill would extend health care coverage under SCHIP to legal resident children who have lived in the U.S. less than 5 years and allow states to set their own requirements for documenting citizenship of program beneficiaries. Current law prevents legal residents from accessing coverage before they have been legal residents for five years. In addition, documentation requirements implemented in July 2006 has proven to be a deterrent for many U.S. citizens that would otherwise access the system but cannot produce the necessary documentation. Under this new provision states would be allowed to return to pre-July 2006 standards which required applicants to sign a proof of citizenship document under penalty of perjury.
As you may know, the Senate recently passed similar legislation regarding SCHIP by a vote of 67-29. Upon reconciling the House and Senate version of this bill, it was sent to the President. Unfortunately, President Bush vetoed this legislation on October 3, 2007. However, in the coming weeks Congress is expected to vote to override that veto, which I adamantly support. Please be assured that I will keep your thoughts in mind as I continue to fight for children's health care funding in this session of Congress.
Again, thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts on this issue. Should you have any additional questions, comments, or concerns, on this, or any other issue, please don't hesitate to contact me again.
Sincerely,
Adam Smith
Member of Congress
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