Frank Pallone: “I just want to reiterate and contradict some of the things that the President said in his veto message today. He said…”

“I just want to reiterate and contradict some of the things that the President said in his veto message today. He said that this is the same bill that we sent him that he previously vetoed. And it's simply not true. We made substantial changes to it to allay concerns about higher income families enrolling, adults being enrolled, or even undocumented immigrants being enrolled. I just want to point out some of the flaws with the President's message in closing. First, the President says that our goal should be to move kids into private coverage and not into public programs. That is exactly what the CHIP program does, Mr. President. CHIP provides money to States, which in turn contract with private insurance companies to provide insurance coverage to kids. It's not socialized medicine, it's not government-run health care, and the President should know that. Second, the President says his proposal to reauthorize CHIP would increase funding by 20 percent. What he doesn't tell you is that his plan would not help provide coverage to the 6 million kids who are uninsured and eligible to enroll in either CHIP or Medicaid.”