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For Immediate Release
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Representative Steve King
5th Congressional District of Iowa |
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October 18, 2007
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King Eager to Pass Responsible Children’s Health Insurance Law, Pelosi-Culver Bill Fails
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| Washington, D.C.—Congressman Steve King today voted to uphold the President’s rejection of a bill to greatly expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), known as "hawk-i" in Iowa. King supports "hawk-i" which he helped create during his service in the Iowa Senate. The U.S. House of Representatives voted to sustain the President’s veto.
"SCHIP and Iowa’s "hawk-i" should put poor kids first. Unless Governor Culver and Speaker Pelosi want to lay the cornerstone for socialized healthcare, why would they avoid the truth about this bill while trying to inflate SCHIP to include kids who already have insurance and to even include illegal alien adults?"
King added, "If this inflated SCHIP proposal were not stopped today, it would have:
- given taxpayer subsidies to Iowa families of four earning $77,437
- taken 2 million children off private health insurance and onto the government tab
- eliminated citizenship verification requirements
- given $6.5 billion to illegal aliens for Medicaid and SCHIP benefits
- increased the tobacco tax by 156%
- required 22.4 million new smokers in order to fund the program"
SCHIP was created by the Republican Congress as part of welfare reform. As welfare dependents were moved from welfare to work, SCHIP was designed to cover the children of the working poor who were earning too much to qualify for Medicaid.
"After all the posturing and theatrics, I predict we will get a better deal for poor kids and taxpayers. My goals for SCHIP are - first, require enrollment of 90% of eligible kids before benefits can be expanded above 200% of poverty; second, protect current laws for citizenship verification. If a final bill gives benefits to those under 300% of poverty, and if we reestablish citizenship requirements, the savings to taxpayers will be measured in the billions. After all, every dollar added to this current program ends up as a national debt that the same kids we are trying to help will eventually have to pay,"
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concluded King. King asked. |
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