Kirk Watson: “10 years ago, the Children's Health Insurance Program was created in a strong bipartisan fashion to ensure more…”

“10 years ago, the Children's Health Insurance Program was created in a strong bipartisan fashion to ensure more low-income children have access to quality health care. Today, thanks to CHIP, 6 million children who would otherwise be uninsured can see the doctor of their family's choice any time they want. For the first 8 years of the CHIP program, the number of uninsured children fell significantly, but that changed 2 years ago, and the trend continued last year when 700,000 more children joined the ranks of the uninsured. That was simply unacceptable to many of us here in Congress, and that's why we crafted a final bipartisan agreement that not only continues to provide health care access to 6 million kids who are already in the program, but also to 4 million others who are also eligible for CHIP. If the President had his way, the number of uninsured children would go up by at least 800,000 over the next year. That is why we need to override his veto today.”