John Ensign: “I wish to talk about my amendment. My amendment says that the Children's Health Insurance Program, which is designed to…”

“I wish to talk about my amendment. My amendment says that the Children's Health Insurance Program, which is designed to cover low-income children, should first cover low-income children. Many of the States today are covering nonpregnant adults and I believe this is at the expense of low-income children. This program is called the State Children's Health Insurance Program and it is called that for a reason. It is supposed to be for low-income kids. It was not intended for nonpregnant adults. My amendment says that you cannot cover nonpregnant adults until you cover 95 percent of the targeted low-income children's population. Some States have extended their SCHIP coverage to nonpregnant adults. According to the Government Accountability Office, SCHIP covered 6 million individuals, including more than 600,000 adults in the year 2005. This means that 1 out of every 10 people covered by SCHIP was an adult. GAO indicated that in Wisconsin, two-thirds of the total SCHIP enrollees in 2005 were adults. Almost half of the enrollees in Rhode Island were adults. It also found that shortfall States are likely to cover a high proportion of adults. The GAO wrote: Adults accounted for an average of 55 percent of enrollees in shortfall States, compared with 24 percent in nonshortfall States. Covering adults is not the primary purpose of SCHIP. I am seriously concerned that nonpregnant adults may be benefitting from SCHIP funds at the expense of low-income children.”