Rick Allen: “I was here in 1997 when the SCHIP program was passed, and it was passed with very strong bipartisan support. People on…”

“I was here in 1997 when the SCHIP program was passed, and it was passed with very strong bipartisan support. People on both sides of the aisle, and many of the same groups that you just mentioned, people on both sides of the aisle believed, as virtually all Americans do, that our children should get health care. They ought to be able not just to go to an emergency room when they're seriously ill or have had an accident, but they should be able to get preventive care so they can grow up to be healthy children and healthy productive adults. That's really, I think, a fairly basic proposition. And that's what drove us back in 1997. And now you were asking, what happens if this program doesn't continue? Well, if it's not reauthorized, then 6 million children in this country lose their health insurance. And if they lose their health insurance, maybe some of them, when they're seriously injured, will go to an emergency room, but most of them will lose the preventive care that they get today. The President put in his budget $5 billion over 5 years for an increase in SCHIP, which would fund about one-third of the amount that States are estimated to require over the next 5 years. In other words, the President's position is that this is a program that should be cut back.”