Lincoln Chafee: “I am very pleased today to introduce legislation to provide health insurance for millions of children who are not…”

“I am very pleased today to introduce legislation to provide health insurance for millions of children who are not currently covered. Before I talk about the bill, let me take a moment to thank all of the members of the bipartisan coalition who have worked so hard to put this legislation together. Senator Rockefeller, the lead Democratic cosponsor and my colleague on the Finance Committee, deserves very special mention in this regard. Senator Rockefeller has worked for many, many years on these issues and I am personally grateful for all his leadership and hard work in this endeavor. He is a true hero when it comes to America's children. There are currently 10 million children in this country who do not have health insurance. Many of these children live in families where one or both parents are working but do not have employee coverage and earn too much to qualify for Medicaid. Others, though eligible, simply fall through the cracks, while still others lose eligibility because of age-based restrictions. This is a tragic problem and our proposal tries to provide real solutions. The Chafee-Rockefeller proposal offers the States additional Federal matching funds if they choose to provide Medicaid coverage to all children up to 150 percent of the Federal poverty level. It is a completely voluntary program--we hope that all States will participate, but we leave that decision to the Governors.”