Max Baucus: “Madam President, 10 years ago a Republican Congress created a program that had a worthy and straightforward goal: health…”

“Madam President, 10 years ago a Republican Congress created a program that had a worthy and straightforward goal: health insurance for kids whose parents made too little to afford private coverage but too much to qualify for Government help. Millions of children were caught between rich and poor, we wanted to help, and thanks to the State Children's Health Insurance Program, we did. The program has been a success. Since SCHIP's creation, the uninsured rate for children in families earning between about $20,000 and $40,000 a year has dropped by 25 percent. Last year it covered more than 6 /2 million kids. Today the number of uninsured children within the income group we originally targeted is down to about one million nationwide. Republicans were ready to finish the good work we started with SCHIP, and we approached its reauthorization this year as an opportunity to do just that, to reach out to the kids in our original target area who should be covered by SCHIP but weren't.”