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In Light of Recent Census Report Bush Should Reconsider His Veto Threat of Champ Act

September 6, 2007
Blog

For a decade now the Children's Health Insurance Program has provided six million children access to private health insurance. Thanks to CHIP, every year over the last decade the number of uninsured children fell. That is until the last two years.

Last week, the Census Bureau reported that the number of American children living without health insurance increased from 8 million in 2005 to 8.7 million in 2006. This is simply unacceptable.

I would hope that President Bush saw these troubling numbers and finally realized that we cannot afford to ignore them any longer. Last month, this Democratic House acted by passing the CHAMP act, legislation that will allow us to reach an additional five million children who are already eligible for the CHIP program.

When CHIP was created back in 1997, it was supported by both Democrats and Republicans. But today, both the White House and Congressional Republicans oppose efforts to invest in children's health.

The census bureau report should serve as a wake-up call to the President to reconsider his veto threat of the CHAMP Act.