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Support Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act

Date: Jan. 23, 2008
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Health and Health Care


SUPPORT CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM REAUTHORIZATION ACT -- (House of Representatives - January 23, 2008)

(Mr. CUELLAR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

Mr. CUELLAR. Madam Speaker, I rise today in full support of H.R. 3963, the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act. The SCHIP program in the State of Texas has been extremely successful in providing crucial access to health care for children. SCHIP coverage provides children with coverage for a full range of health services.

Uninsured children are five times more likely than insured children to use the emergency room in hospitals as their main source for medical care. The cost of an emergency room visit is more than $144 compared to only $36 for a primary doctor's visit. A number of these emergency visits should be made to primary doctors with SCHIP coverage.

The current SCHIP enrollment for the children in the State of Texas is about 353,000, and there are over 1.4 million uninsured children in the State of Texas, which is the highest rate of uninsured children in the Nation.

Madam Speaker, I am glad to support the SCHIP reauthorization act and ask my colleagues to support this bill.


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