Darlene Hooley: “over the last 10 years, the Children's Health Insurance Program has been a success story, significantly reducing the…”

“over the last 10 years, the Children's Health Insurance Program has been a success story, significantly reducing the number of children living without health insurance at a time when employer-sponsored insurance continues to erode. When CHIP was created in 1997, the number of uninsured children under the age of 19 was 23 percent. Over the last decade, that has fallen to 15 percent. That is a great improvement, but still unacceptable. That is why Democrats will bring the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act to the House floor today for a vote. The CHAMP Act invests in our children by ensuring that nearly every child eligible for the CHIP program is signed up and is receiving the essential preventative health care they need to live longer and healthier lives. If we do not take care of our children's health now, we will pay a lot more later on. Madam Speaker, with the passage of the CHAMP Act later today, this House will move us significantly closer to ensuring that every child in America has access to health insurance.”