Johnny Isakson: “I rise to wholeheartedly endorse an amendment filed today prior to the 2:30 deadline, authored by Senator Chambliss and…”

“I rise to wholeheartedly endorse an amendment filed today prior to the 2:30 deadline, authored by Senator Chambliss and coauthored by myself. The amendment relates to SCHIP, State Children's Health Insurance Program, and a crisis that exists right now, this minute, in 17 States in the United States of America. As the occupant of the chair knows, SCHIP is a program where our most needy children are able to get health insurance. It is a 71-percent Federal Medicaid match. But unlike Medicaid, it is not an entitlement; it is an appropriated amount annually that is derived by a formula as the States get their benefit. What has happened this year is that a number of States, with a number of children eligible for the program, have run out of their Federal match and it is capitated. Also, a number of States have a significant surplus. What Senator Chambliss has proposed, and what I am advocating, is an amendment we want to propose to the CR which would take that amount of surplus SCHIP money in States with more than 200 percent of their estimated need-- take that amount above 200 percent and put it into a pool and reallocate it to those States that are falling short, so that through this fiscal year every child in America who has been promised children's health insurance can in fact get it.”