Jay Rockefeller: “This is a two-part problem. One is the $1.5 billion shortfall in this fiscal year, and the $1.6 billion in the second…”

“This is a two-part problem. One is the $1.5 billion shortfall in this fiscal year, and the $1.6 billion in the second fiscal year. The States have the money. Since we did not put the program under Medicaid at the very beginning, States started at various rates. Some were faster than others. Therefore, not all the money has been used. Rather than return it to the Treasury where it can't help any child at all--we still have 8 million, or 10 million, or 12 million children who need to be insured. We need to do the short-term fix, which is what this colloquy is about. Then we need to get to a longer term fix in the Finance Committee. I look forward to working with Chairman Grassley and Chairman Baucus to mark up a bill which will accomplish this objective on an annual basis, and then, of course, move on to the next logical step, which is to include the parent or parents of those same children.”