“Covering our uninsured children should be a top priority in this country so that quality health care is affordable and accessible for everyone,” Ross said. “This critical legislation would strengthen the State Children’s Health Insurance Program to extend vital health care to over 10 million low-income, American children – including 41,000 Arkansas children.”

The legislation is a Conference Report, agreed to by the House and Senate, which the Senate is expected to pass later this week. Upon passage of the Conference Report by the Senate, the final bill will then be sent to the President to be signed into law, but he has vowed to veto the legislation. Ross called the President’s veto threats a mistake.

“There is nothing more critical than providing our nation’s children with a healthy start in life, such as children who have working parents that lack health insurance coverage provided by their employers or are without the means to afford it.” Ross said. “It is my hope that the President will understand the critical needs of our children and sign this bill into law because one child without health care in this country is one too many.”

Currently, 6 million children have health coverage under S-CHIP which is set to expire on September 30^th of this year. S-CHIP was established with broad bipartisan support in 1997 by President Clinton and a Republican-led Congress. Since its foundation, the program has reduced the number of uninsured children by one-third nationwide. In Arkansas alone, the percentage of uninsured children has dropped from 22 percent in 1997 to 10 percent today.

As a state Senator, Ross helped pass AR Kids First which now provides coverage to over 70,000 Arkansas children.

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