Baucus Floor Statement on Cornyn CHIP Amendment
The Cornyn CHIP reauthorization reserve fund amendment would undermine existing state CHIP programs and likely add to the ranks of the uninsured.
Senator Cornyn has proposed an amendment that makes the CHIP reserve fund in the budget subject to new policy constraints that would limit CHIP coverage for children above 200 percent of poverty or non-pregnant adults and could undermine the quality of benefits that children receive by allowing CHIP to fund coverage of children on their parents private job-based health plans.
The Cornyn Amendment would likely lead to many children losing their health insurance coverage. Fifteen states now provide coverage for children above 200 percent of the poverty level. This amendment would direct the Senate in CHIP reauthorization to limit funding for these tens of thousands of children now covered.
The Cornyn Amendment also limits coverage for adults now covered under CHIP. The Bush Administration has granted most of these waivers allowing adults to be covered under CHIP. Now some want to pull the rug out from under states now providing coverage to adults. We can debate this issue in reauthorization – coverage for these individuals now makes up only about 10 percent of CHIP spending.
CHIP reauthorization should not cause any individuals to become uninsured. There are too many Americans already uninsured – 47 million. We must move towards a solution, not make the problem worse.
We can debate these policies in reauthorization. This is not an issue for the budget. This is something for the Finance Committee to decide.
I strongly urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment.
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