John Sarbanes: “10 years ago the Children's Health Insurance Program was instituted. Since then, 6 million children have been given…”

“10 years ago the Children's Health Insurance Program was instituted. Since then, 6 million children have been given access to private health care insurance in this country. It was absolutely the right thing to do. But new evidence from the Census Bureau released last week suggests that we are now slipping backwards. The number of children without health insurance coverage in this country increased from 8 million in 2005 to 8.7 million in 2006. That is why we passed 4 weeks ago the CHAMP Act which would increase insurance coverage for children to an additional 5 million children in this country. That's the direction we need to be going in. Unfortunately, the President is threatening to veto the CHAMP Act. I hope the President will reconsider, stop posturing on this issue, and do the right thing by America's children.”