State Children's Health Insurance Program

Floor Speech

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, let me say I share the view of the majority leader that we debate and vote on a number of amendments today. That certainly is our plan on this side of the aisle.

With regard to the SCHIP legislation, I do think we had a good day of debate yesterday, in spite of the interruptions the majority leader referred to in relation to the Finance Committee and the Appropriations Committee action on the stimulus package. I know Members of both parties were participating in that business most of the day. I particularly compliment Senators COBURN and BURR for the outstanding job they did managing the Republican time while our colleagues were occupied at that markup.

Republicans are committed to making sure every child has access to affordable health insurance. But there are some pretty important differences between Republicans and Democrats in how we get there.

Today the Senate will vote on our Republican alternative, the Kids First Act. To remind our colleagues, the Kids First Act refocuses SCHIP on its intended purpose, which is providing insurance to low-income, uninsured children.

The Kids First Act closes a number of loopholes and gimmicks that are being used to expand the definition of ``low income'' to families making up to $88,000 a year. I don't know anyone in Kentucky who would characterize $88,000 a year as low income.

Some States have used SCHIP to cover adults--remember, this is a program for children--even when thousands of eligible low-income children
are still lacking coverage. It is worth repeating. Insurance for children is being used instead for adults. That is wrong, and the Kids First Act would ban such practices.

The CBO reports that our legislation will provide coverage to nearly 2 million low-income children who currently lack health insurance, and it does so in a fiscally responsible manner without raising taxes.

I know many of my Republican colleagues have other commonsense ideas to improve this legislation, and those will be offered. Republicans understand taxpayer resources are too scarce to be squandered away by waste, fraud or abuse. And Republicans are prepared to offer amendments to fix those problems and make the bill better.

For example, one provision of the bill allows a select few States to expand coverage to more than three times the Federal poverty level. Let me say that again. One of the provisions in the underlying bill allows a few States to expand coverage to more than three times the Federal poverty level. We don't think it is fair to provide special treatment to certain States, and we expect an amendment to address that situation.

The bill also provides Government health insurance to 2.4 million kids who already have health insurance, providing Government-paid insurance to kids who already have health insurance. Republicans believe those kids should be able to keep the coverage they have, and we will have amendments to let kids who already have health insurance keep that coverage, freeing more resources for kids who are actually in need.

Just as working families are trying to get the most out of every dollar, Republicans believe Government needs to do the same thing by rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in all programs, including Medicaid and SCHIP.

These are a few of the ideas we will be discussing today and tomorrow as the Senate continues this very important debate.

I yield the floor.

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