Acton Needed: Children's Health Insurance Program
LaMarr
Children's Health Insurance! Votes in both the House and the Senate
are expected to occur within the next two to three days, so please
call soon!
TARGET: Your Senators and Representative. You can identify your
Senators and Representative, and generate an e-mail on this issue, by
going to the ACA internet action center at http://capwiz.com/counseling.
The non-profit advocacy organization Families USA
(www.familiesusa.org) has set up a toll-free number you can use to
call your members of Congress, at 800-828-0498. Please feel free to
use this in advocating for the legislation!
SUGGESTED MESSAGE:
For Senators --- "I'm a constituent of Senator _____, and I'm calling
to ask him/her to vote YES on the children's health insurance program
legislation and NO on amendments that restrict children's eligibility
for health coverage."
For Representatives --- "I'm a constituent of the Congressman/
Congresswoman, and I'm calling to ask him/her to vote for the CHAMP
Act, H.R. 3162. Congress should extend and strengthen the children's
health insurance program, and should reduce Medicare overpayments to
managed care plans so that Medicare's benefit package can be
improved."
BACKGROUND: The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)
provided health insurance coverage to an estimated 6.6 million
children across the U.S. in 2006. Unlike Medicaid, the SCHIP program
is NOT an entitlement program, and spending does not happen
automatically; SCHIP is a program of grants to states, and the number
of children provided with health insurance under the program depends
on appropriations from Congress. If SCHIP funding is frozen at its
2007 funding level of $5 billion, states' children's health insurance
programs will not be able to keep pace with health care cost inflation
or population growth, and hundreds of thousands of children will lose
their coverage. It is imperative that SCHIP be reauthorized by
September 30th, and that more money is devoted to the program.
On the House side, the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act
(CHAMP Act) would also reduce government overpayments to Medicare
Advantage plans operated by managed care companies. Although these
plans were initially brought into Medicare to reduce costs, studies
show that these plans are paid 12 percent more, on average, than it
would cost traditional Medicare to cover the same beneficiaries. The
CHAMP Act would use the savings from reducing these overpayments to
improve Medicare's benefit package, including by establishing Medicare
coverage of licensed professional counselors.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Scott Barstow
Director of Public Policy and Legislation
American Counseling Association
5999 Stevenson Avenue
Alexandria, VA 22304