Children's Health Bill Vote Makes The Record Clear

WASHINGTON — Campaign for America's Future co-director Roger Hickey said that 156 House Members declared themselves enemies of children and families in today's vote on children's health care. Hickey said today's override vote marks the first round in a major fight to fix our nation's broken health care system and illustrates the latest obstruction to progress by conservatives.

The bill would reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance program for 6.6 million children and provide coverage to nearly 4 million more children in working families. The expansion of SCHIP is widely popular, according to a new poll released this week by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health. Given the basic parameters of the expansion - its cost, the number of new children who would be covered, and how it would be paid for - seven in 10 Americans say they back the plan.

STATEMENT OF ROGER HICKEY

One hundred and fifty-six House Members declared themselves enemies of children and families with this vote. Ignoring the will of the people, a conservative minority in the House sustained the president's veto and denied nearly 5 million children access to health insurance. Upholding the president's veto is only the latest obstruction to progress by Washington conservatives.

An overwhelming majority of Americans support bold reforms in health care and other important areas, but conservatives have repeatedly used filibusters and vetoes to block this progress and then they hypocritically blame others for a lack of congressional action. The record is clear. Congressional conservatives and the president are the culprits who have stood in the way of a new progressive direction for our nation. Our children will pay a steep price for their cruel politics.

Conservatives celebrate the veto at their own peril. Voters are calling on their government to solve the health care crisis for Americans of all ages. Where legislators stood on expanding children's health care is a good indication of where they will stand on critical reforms needed to provide affordable health care for all — an issue that will be at the center of our political debate in next year's elections.

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**NOTE: To obtain a copy of today's poll, please visit http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/pomr101707pkg.cfm [1]. Media representatives interested in scheduling an interview to discuss today's override vote and the health care crisis in America should contact Anne Thompson at athompson@ourfuture.org [2] or 202-587-1614.**