ACTION ALERT: Urge Sen. Domenici to Support Children's Health Insurance Bill

Editor's Note: If you care about expanding health insurance coverage for children in New Mexico and around the nation, now is the time to contact Sen. Domenici and urge him to support the SCHIP bill passed by the Senate Finance Committee. There are at least 86,000 children in New Mexico who lack healthcare coverage and many more who are underinsured. The link provided below makes it easy to contact Sen. Domenici (and our other members of Congress). You can also call Sen. Domenici's office toll free by using 1-800-861-5343. Please do either or both TODAY.

From the Children's Defense Fund:
As you probably already aware, right now the future of children’s health insurance is being decided on Capitol Hill. The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) – a program that provides health coverage to poor children – is being considered for reauthorization and Congress is deciding whether or not they will renew the program and if they will expand it to include more children and possibly improve the program as well.

Taking this opportunity to renew, expand, and improve SCHIP is critical because although SCHIP has been effective at reducing the number of uninsured children over the past 10 years, nine million children are still uninsured (86,000 in New Mexico) and millions more are underinsured. That means millions of children in America are not getting the care they need to lead healthy and happy lives.

Late last week, the Senate Finance Committee approved $35 billion expansion that would be financed through tobacco taxes that now goes to the Senate floor for a vote. At the same time, President Bush has proposed his own plan with a mere $5 billion expansion and has threatened to veto the Senate compromise. Additionally, the House is considering SCHIP legislation in the next few days, before the August recess. As you can see, this issue is front-and-center this week and next on Capitol Hill. Since Senator Domenici plays a key role in getting this Senate bill passed and in providing enough votes to override Bush’s veto, we thought you and your readers would be interested in this issue.

The Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) has been working hard over the last few months to raise awareness of the nine million uninsured children in America and pushing to better fund (at least $50 billion in new money) and improve the program by getting people to contact their Members of Congress through our website (www.childrensdefense.org) and through our Elect Susie Campaign website (www.electsusie.com). Although CDF’s ultimate goal is to provide health coverage to all nine million children this year, we know that this reauthorization is a great opportunity to make important inroads into the problem by expanding and improving the program to cover as many children as possible.

For more information, check these articles:

Bush’s proposal: “Bush: No Deal On Children's Health Plan,” July 19, 2007

Senate proposal: “Senate Panel OKs Child Health Bill,” July 19, 2007

House proposal: “House Democrats Offer Health Plan,” July 24, 2007