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From the Senate: Statement of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on Passage of the Children's Health Insurance Bill

September 28, 2007

Washington, DC – "I am proud that Congress has put partisanship aside and come together to do the right thing for our children and families. The president now has the choice: will he help nearly four million uninsured children gain access to the health care they desperately need or will he turn his back on them? I hope the president makes the right choice.

"I was proud to help create the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) during the Clinton Administration, which today provides health insurance for six million children. In New York alone, almost 400,000 children benefit from CHIP every month. By enacting this bill into law, 3.8 million uninsured children will gain coverage, including an additional 72,000 children in New York who will have access to health care. The legislation will also help reach many of the almost 300,000 children in New York who live in families that are already eligible but not yet enrolled.

"I am also proud that this bill includes the Support for Injured Servicemembers Act of 2007, legislation that Senator Dodd and I introduced to provide up to six months of job-protected leave for spouses, children, parents or next of kin of service members who suffer from a combat-related injury or illness. Currently, these spouses, parents and children can receive only twelve weeks of leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. All too often, this is just not enough time, as injured service members struggle to grapple with traumatic brain injuries, severe physical wounds, and other problems upon returning home from Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Expanding leave to six months is a step we can take immediately that will make a real difference in the lives of these wounded warriors and their families and I hope the President will stand with them by signing this bill into law.

"I am disappointed, however, that the bill approved fails to include the Legal Immigrant Children's Health Improvement Act, which I introduced with Senator Snowe and have been working on for a number of years. This bipartisan bill would give states the flexibility to provide the same Medicaid and CHIP coverage to low-income legal immigrant children and pregnant women as they do to U.S. citizens. The current restrictions prevent thousands of immigrant children and pregnant women who are here legally and are following the rules from receiving preventive health services and treatment for minor illnesses before they become serious. This hurts children and families and we should put a stop to it."

Hillary Clinton, From the Senate: Statement of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on Passage of the Children's Health Insurance Bill Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/293668

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