Debbie Dingell: “I submit for the Record the disregards for children's coverage that have been submitted to us by the Congressional…”

“I submit for the Record the disregards for children's coverage that have been submitted to us by the Congressional Research Service. The point here is that the money needs to continue to flow to working families so that we can keep them working rather than staying on welfare. Within the Medicaid and SCHIP programs, states are permitted to disregard or not count certain types of amounts of family income as decided by the State in determining eligibility for the program. This bill maintains this long-standing flexibility to allow States to disregard certain legitimate costs like child care and child support costs, recognizing that this income is not available for a family to spend on health coverage. Allowing States to disregard these costs ensures that working families have the money they need to pay for work-related expenses to ensure that low-income families can keep their jobs. This is important to keep families from having to go on welfare to get health coverage for their children.”