President Bush Expected to Veto House-Senate Passed Bill, Which Includes Six-Month Moratorium on New CMS Rules on Both Rehab Services Option and School-Based Services

Executive Summary

Last week, the House and Senate passed the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007 (CHIPRA), which would reauthorize and expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The final agreement reached by the House and Senate would not only reauthorize and expand this important program for children but also includes a six-month moratorium on the issuance of new rules from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on both the Medicaid rehabilitative services option and school-based services. Unfortunately, President Bush has made clear his plans to veto this legislation. 19 more votes are needed in the House to overturn his veto. The National Council urges all members to call their Representatives and ask them to support passage of SCHIP.

Action Needed

The National Council urges all members in Virginia to contact their Representatives and ask her them to support passage of SCHIP.  For your representative's contact information, go to www.house.gov. 

What Should You Say?

I am calling to urge the Representative to support passage of SCHIP legislation.

Talking Points

• Currently, over 90 percent of children enrolled in SCHIP have incomes at or below twice the poverty level – or $41,300 for a family of four

• The vast majority of children who would gain coverage under both the House and Senate bills would have incomes less than twice the poverty level

Additional Resources

Read a summary of CHIPRA, prepared by the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University.

The Senate Finance Committee has prepared a fact sheet entitled “The Agreement to Renew the Children’s Health Insurance Program: Separating Fact from Fiction.” 

The Annenberg Political Fund Fact Check website has also prepared a piece refuting the President’s claims that CHIPRA would lead to crowd-out and create coverage for children in high-income families.

Please let the National Council know if you contact Representative Davis on this issue. Contact Allison Fort at AllisonF@thenationalcouncil.org to let us know you participated and share the response you received.

Background

Before adjourning for the month-long August recess, both the House and Senate passed separate bills to reauthorize and expand SCHIP, which is set to expire on September 30, 2007  - just five days from today. While both bills sought to reauthorize and expand SCHIP, differences in the two bills had to be resolved by a joint House-Senate conference committee before the legislation could be passed on to the President for final approval.

Under the final agreement reached by the House and Senate yesterday, funding for SCHIP would be expanded by $35 billion over the next five years. The bill includes a six-month moratorium on new regulations from CMS on both Medicaid rehabilitative services option and school-based services. The National Council has been advocating for a moratorium on rulemaking related to the rehabilitative service option along with a number of other mental health and disability groups and was one of the groups that worked to have this language included in both the House’s SCHIP bill and the final House-Senate agreement. In addition, the bill also has a new requirement that private sector SCHIP plans must cover treatment for mental illness on par with all other medical conditions.