Conyers Votes With House Majority to Pass Revised Children’s Health Insurance Legislation

Washington D.C. – Congressman John Conyers, Jr., Chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary and Dean of the Congressional Black Caucus, released the following statement regarding the passage in the House yesterday of a revised SCHIP bill on a vote of 265-142:

“As promised, the Congress is preparing to send legislation back to the President to provide health insurance coverage for 10 million American children. A bipartisan coalition worked diligently to address concerns raised by many Republicans around the issues of providing coverage for illegal immigrants, adults and higher income families. The legislation was carefully clarified to address those concerns. It makes clear that no ‘high income’ children are covered; benefits to illegal immigrants are prohibited; coverage of childless adults is phased out; and ‘crowd out’ is reduced so fewer families will drop their private insurance.

“Unfortunately, despite these changes, the majority of House Republicans maintained their opposition to this critical legislation. It is disappointing that they continue to put ideology and loyalty to the President ahead of the well-being of our nation’s children. They now appear to have only one argument left: that this proposal costs too much. I would like the President and Congressional Republicans to explain to the American people how they can afford $12 billion dollars for a single month in Iraq but can’t seem to find $35 billion over five years to give our children health care.

“I believe that the President and his supporters continue to oppose this legislation because they are afraid. They are afraid of SCHIP because it demonstrates that health care guaranteed by the government is workable, it is affordable, and it is popular. They worry that if SCHIP is expanded, even more Americans will begin to demand that the government guarantee health care to all our citizens, not just to poor children. These Republicans refuse to accept what many Americans already believe: that health care in this country should not be privilege for those who can afford it, but a right guaranteed to all.”