Enact a Strong State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) Reauthorization Bill

Recipient: U.S. Senate

Dear Senator:

On behalf of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) the nation’s oldest, largest, and most diverse civil and human rights coalition-and the undersigned organizations, we urge you to support the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) reauthorization bill, which give legal immigrant children access to federally funded Medicaid and SCHIP and does not include any citizenship documentation requirements.

Building on the success of Medicaid, SCHIP has significantly improved children’s access to health care, and has made great strides in covering racial and ethnic minority children. Despite the successes of SCHIP and Medicaid, nine million children remain uninsured, more than five million of whom are racial and ethnic minorities.

Last year, SCHIP passed both Houses of Congress, but support was insufficient to override President Bush’s veto. The bill that passed in 2008 included a citizenship documentation requirement that would make it more difficult to insure all children, and excluded improvements that would end restrictions imposed on legal immigrant children’s access to SCHIP, including a five-year waiting period. States already spend their own money to provide safety net programs for low-income immigrants. Allowing states to use some federally funded services toward that goal would bring significant fiscal relief to states and would give them the flexibility to better address the needs of their populations. LCCR urges Congress to pass SCHIP without citizenship documentation requirements and with the legal immigrant improvements.

In addition, we support allowing states to continue existing programs to cover low-income adults in SCHIP. At a minimum, the SCHIP reauthorization legislation should not cause anyone who currently has SCHIP coverage to lose that coverage. There has been bipartisan support for covering parents of SCHIP-eligible children since the program’s inception in 1997. There is considerable evidence that covered parents are more likely to enroll their children, ensure that their children receive care, and stay enrolled in the program.

We also hope Congress will maintain important provisions that were included in last year’s bill, to improve health care quality by working with states to strengthen quality improvement efforts and developing additional health quality measures appropriate for pediatric care.

Please contact Sabrina Corlette, Director of Health Policy at the National Partnership for Women & Families, at (202) 986-2600, or Nancy Zirkin, Executive Vice President of LCCR, at (202) 263-2880, if you would like to discuss SCHIP or any other issues of importance to LCCR.

Sincerely,
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
African American Health Alliance
Americans for Democratic Action
Black Women’s Health Imperative
Center for Inquiry
Japanese American Citizens League
Jewish Council for Public Affairs
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
National Black Nurses Association, Inc.
National Council of Jewish Women
National Council of La Raza
National Health Law Program
National Hispanic Medical Association
National Korean American Service & Education Consortium
National Partnership for Women & Families
National Trust for the Development of African-American Men
National Women’s Law Center
OCA National Center
Out of Many, One Coalition
Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Coalition
Summit Health Institute for Research and Education, Inc
The Cave Institute