Illinois Reiterate Need For Reauthorization Of SCHIP

State Children ,, s Health Insurance Program

Continuing his push for reauthorization of the State Children ,, s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), Governor Rod R. Blagojevich today joined governors from across the country in calling on the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to immediately reverse proposed mandates it announced last month that will fundamentally alter the authority given to states under SCHIP to craft and operate health care programs that best serve their constituents. In a bipartisan letter sent to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt, Gov. Blagojevich and 29 other governors from around the nation urged CMS to reiterate its commitment to the state-federal partnership under SCHIP and join the governors in advocating the reauthorization of SCHIP this year.

"The deadline to reauthorize SCHIP is quickly approaching and children in many states are in jeopardy of losing much needed health insurance coverage, said Gov. Blagojevich. "While Congress works toward consensus on reauthorization, the Bush Administration is setting up a process that makes it even harder for states to expand coverage to uninsured children. As governors, we are working in a bipartisan way to support an SCHIP reauthorization that continues to give states the funds and the flexibility they need to craft a program that meets each state's individual circumstances.

Governor Blagojevich has been working tirelessly with the Illinois Congressional Delegation, as well as other Governors, to ensure that funding continues for the SCHIP program which has helped to provide healthcare for over 316,000 Illinois children since inception. Last month, the Governor sent a letter to President Bush urging him to put the well being of hundreds of thousands of Illinois children first and reconsider his threat to veto both the house-passed and senate-passed SCHIP bills.

Congress created SCHIP in 1997 as a bipartisan approach to address the growing number of children without health insurance in America. According to the Congressional Research Service, however, forty states now have expenditures greater than their federal SCHIP allotment per year, and at least fourteen states are facing federal matching shortfalls for FY 2007. That is why Gov. Blagojevich has joined other governors in pushing for more federal resources in the reauthorization process.

In addition, the current SCHIP formula, which is partially based on the number of low-income children who do not have healthcare, penalizes states like Illinois for taking action to provide healthcare to more children. Earlier this year, Gov. Blagojevich called on the Illinois Congressional Delegation and the U.S. Congress to revise the formula to be based on the total number of low-income children in the state and number of children and parents covered.

In January, the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, one of the nation ,, s most respected independent health policy research organizations, released a report crediting Governor Blagojevich ,, s administration for sparking a national movement to provide healthcare to all children. Over the last year, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts have followed Illinois ,, lead to provide healthcare to more uninsured children, and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced his proposal to do the same.

In November 2005, the Governor signed All Kids into law, making healthcare affordable for the families of every uninsured child in the state. All Kids made Illinois the first state in the nation to offer affordable, comprehensive health coverage to every uninsured child. Under Governor Blagojevich, the state has provided health coverage to more than 360,000 children.