On the recordNovember 1, 2017
This year my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have wasted months in often misguided debate over repealing the Affordable Care Act. While this debate has raged within one political party, the Children's Health Insurance Program has expired. I received a letter last night from Governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania. He wants us to act to protect the hundreds of thousands of children in our Commonwealth who depend on CHIP funding to meet their basic healthcare needs. The GOP has failed to reauthorize CHIP over arguments of how to pay for it and the distractions of a failed effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. That puts us in a tough spot in Philadelphia and the Commonwealth. I am convinced that something must be done because, as Governor Wolf points out, time is essential for our State and numerous others; yet 300,000 kids are enrolled in CHIP, which will soon run out of money to pay for their care. The kids who rely on CHIP funding are some of the most vulnerable in our State, and, frankly, they need action now. The solution doesn't have to be partisan. Providing low-income kids and the hospitals that serve them isn't a Democratic or Republican issue; it is a commonsense issue. The failure to act is unacceptable, so I say now we need to do something. I urge my colleagues in the GOP to get to work on a bipartisan solution. ____________________
