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Press Release

LULAC President Calls For Support On New SCHIP Bill.

Children Health Bill Would Guarantee Insurance For Ten Million Children.

October 25, 2007

For more information, contact:
Javier Dominguez, 202-833-6130 ext 12

Washington, DC – The League of United Latin American Citizens, our nation’s oldest and largest Hispanic civil rights organization, endorses H.R. 3963, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Although the bill is not perfect by any means, the bill will expand the program by $35 billion for a total of $60 billion in the next five years and grant insurance for ten million low income children.

“While we remain deeply disappointed that the legal Immigrant Children’s Health Improvement Act (ICHIA) provision was not included, a provision that would have granted states flexibility to provide health insurance for low income and lawfully residing immigrant children, the reauthorization of SCHIP will substantially reduce healthcare disparities for minority communities,” said LULAC National President Rosa Rosales. “There are over three million Latino children living in the United States without any insurance whatsoever, and 70% of them are eligible but not even enrolled in the program. The SCHIP reauthorization aims to get at the root cause of this crisis by improving the quality of low income children, improving outreach tools to simplify enrollment of eligible children, as well as help remedy the shortfalls that have persisted in the program.”

The Congressional Budget Office has reported that by 2012, the new SCHIP bipartisan bill would extend health coverage to a total of 3.8 million children, 2.4 million (63%) would be minority children, including 1.4 million Latino children.

Nevertheless, there are some concerns that should be addressed. Not only does this bill exclude ICHIA but it also includes a harsh citizenship eligibility verification system. As is, if the Social Security Administration cannot confirm an SCHIP applicant’s legal status, then the applicant will be required to provide the state with additional documentation. In addition, over one year, qualifying adults without children will be phased out under the new restrictions as opposed to two.

The League of United Latin American Citizens, the largest and oldest Hispanic membership organization in the country, advances the economic conditions, educational attainment, political influence, health and civil rights of Hispanic Americans through community-based programs operating at more than 700 LULAC councils nationwide.

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