Laird Urges President Bush and Congress to Restore Access to Children's Health Insurance Program

SACRAMENTO – Assemblymember John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) today announced the introduction of a resolution (AJR 54) calling on President Bush and the U.S. Congress to rescind a federal directive that restricts California’s authority to cover children under the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).  The resolution was co-authored by every member of the Assembly Democratic Caucus.  In the Senate, Senator Steinberg signed on as principal co-author, with Senators Kuehl, Ducheny and Alquist serving as co-authors. 

Mr. Laird’s resolution comes in response to a 2007 federal directive from the Centers for Medicare &

Medicaid Services (CMS) that asserted that states must comply with a series of restrictions that would impair the ability of California to provide health care coverage to children with SCHIP funds under the state’s current program and any expansion levels above those in the present program.  If the state is unable to meet all of these requirements, approximately 34,000 California children could lose their health insurance.  In addition, California’s Healthy Families Program would be prohibited from using SCHIP funds to cover additional uninsured children in working families of three people or more with annual incomes as low as $44,000.

About SCHIP

SCHIP was created in 1997 as a bipartisan effort to help states cover uninsured children.  California’s Healthy Families Program, which provides coverage for nearly 900,000 children in working families whose parents earn too much to qualify for Medi-Cal but cannot afford private insurance, depends on federal SCHIP dollars for two-thirds of its funding.