Rep. Barbara LEE stands UP for Schip at Children's
Above: Rep. Lee speaking at Children's.Photo on right: Rep. Lee takes a question, while Frank Tiedemann, Children's president and CEO, looks on.
Oct. 19, 2007: Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) held a press conference at Children’s Hospital today to support the reauthorization and expansion of the SCHIP program for children’s healthcare.
Congress passed an SCHIP reauthorization bill three weeks ago, but President Bush vetoed the bill on Oct. 16. The House of Representatives fell 13 votes short of overriding the veto on Oct. 18.
“It was unfortunate what happened yesterday (the House vote),” Rep. Lee said, “There is a healthcare crisis in our country.”
“This vote yesterday was not a political vote, it was a moral vote, an ethical vote, to do something for the future,” she said. “If our children are not healthy, we don’t really have a future.”
Rep. Lee was joined at the press conference by a number of children’s healthcare advocates, including Guadeloupe Barrera, an Oakland mother of 5, who, speaking through an interpreter, said, “He’s not just vetoed a bill, he’s vetoed our children."
SCHIP, which stands for State Children's Health Insurance Program, provides health insurance to 6.6 million American children of the working poor. The new bill would have covered 10 million kids.
In California, SCHIP
supports the Healthy Families program. About 450,000 California kids are covered by Healthy Families, but more than 200,000 kids still have no coverage.
Children’s Hospital Oakland saw more than 7,000 Healthy Family children last year.
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