Action Alerts: House Passes SCHIP Bill
Final Bill Includes Six-Month Moratorium on New CMS Rules on Both Rehab Services Option and School-Based Services; Moves to Senate Later This Week
Executive Summary
Yesterday evening, the House approved legislation to reauthorize and expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) by a vote of 265-159. Of the 34 Representatives the National Council urged you to target yesterday, 25 voted in favor of the bill. THANK YOU to all National Council members who contacted members of Congress yesterday on this important piece of legislation! 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.
While the Senate is expected to take up the bill as early as Thursday of this week, our work on SCHIP is not yet over – the House is still 19 votes short of the 290 needed to override the veto President Bush has promised to issue. The National Council again urges all members to contact their Representatives in support of this legislation. We will continue to update you on this important issue as more information becomes available.
Action Needed
The National Council urges all members to contact their Representatives and ask them to support passage of SCHIP. To find your Representative’s contact information, go to: www.house.gov/ or call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.
Among those offices the National Council urged you to contact yesterday, 25 voted “yes” on SCHIP. Please let these Representatives know how much you appreciate their vote:
Mark Kirk (IL-10) 202-225-4835
Mary Bono (CA-45) 202-225-5330
Shelley Moore Capito (WV-2) 202-225-2711
Tom Davis (VA-11) 202-225-1492
Frank Wolf (VA-10) 202-225-5136
Charlie Dent (PA-15) 202-225-6411
Phil English (PA-3) 202-225-5406
Jim Gerlach (PA-6) 202-225-4315
Tim Murphy (PA-18) 202-225-2301
Todd Platts (PA-19) 202-225-5836
Vernon Ehlers (MI-3) 202-225-3831
Fred Upton (MI-6) 202-225-3761
Jo Ann Emerson (MO-8) 202-225-4404
Mike Ferguson (NJ-7) 202-225-5361
Frank LoBiondo (NJ-2) 202-225-6572
Wayne Gilchrest (MD-1) 202-225-5311
James Walsh (NY-25) 202-225-3701
Steven LaTourette (OH-14) 202-225-5731
Deborah Pryce (OH-15) 202-225-2015
Ralph Regula (OH-16) 202-225-3876
Jon Porter (NV-3) 202-225-3252
Jim Ramstad (MN-3) 202-225-2871
David Reichert (WA-8) 202-225-7761
Christopher Shays (CT-4) 202-225-5541
Heather Wilson (NM-1) 202-225-6316
The National Council also urges you to continue to reach out to the following offices:
Rodney Alexander (LA-5) 202-225-8490
Judy Biggert (IL-13) 202-225-3515
Tim Johnson (IL-15) 202-225-2371
Ginny Brown-Waite (FL-5) 202-225-1002
Michael Castle (DE-At Large) 202-225-4165
Jo Ann Davis (VA-1) 202-225-4261
Jim Saxton (NJ-3) 202-225-4765
John “Randy” Kuhl (NY-29) 202-225-3161
Greg Walden (OR-2) 202-225-6730
What Should You Say?
To Representatives who voted “yes” on SCHIP: I am calling to thank the Representative for supporting passage of SCHIP legislation.
To Representatives who voted “no” on SCHIP: 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.
Please let the National Council know if you contact a member of the House on this issue. Contact Allison Fort at allisonf@nccbh.org to let us know you participated and share the response you received from the office.
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.
