House Passes SCHIP Bill 265-159

 

Final Bill Includes Six-Month Moratorium on New CMS Rules on Both Rehab Services Option and School-Based Services; Moves to Senate Later This Week

 

Executive Summary: Yesterday evening, the House approved legislation to reauthorize and expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) by a vote of 265-159. Of the 34 Representatives the National Council urged you to target yesterday, 25 voted in favor of the bill. THANK YOU to all National Council members who contacted members of Congress yesterday on this important piece of legislation! The final agreement reached by the House and Senate would not only reauthorize and expand this important program for children but also includes a six-month moratorium on the issuance of new rules from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on both the Medicaid rehabilitative services option and school-based services.

 

While the Senate is expected to take up the bill as early as Thursday of this week, our work on SCHIP is not yet over – the House is still 19 votes short of the 290 needed to override the veto President Bush has promised to issue. The National Council again urges all members to contact their Representatives in support of this legislation. We will continue to update you on this important issue as more information becomes available.

 

Action Needed: The National Council urges all members to contact their Representatives and ask them to support passage of SCHIP.  To find your Representative’s contact information, go to: www.house.gov/ or call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

 

To see how your Representative voted last night, go to: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll906.xml

 

Among those offices the National Council urged you to contact yesterday, 25 voted “yes” on SCHIP. Please let these Representatives know how much you appreciate their vote:

 

Mark Kirk (IL-10) 202-225-4835

 

Mary Bono (CA-45) 202-225-5330

 

Shelley Moore Capito (WV-2) 202-225-2711

 

Tom Davis (VA-11) 202-225-1492

 

Frank Wolf (VA-10) 202-225-5136

 

Charlie Dent (PA-15) 202-225-6411

 

Phil English (PA-3) 202-225-5406

 

Jim Gerlach (PA-6) 202-225-4315

 

Tim Murphy (PA-18) 202-225-2301

 

Todd Platts (PA-19) 202-225-5836

 

Vernon Ehlers (MI-3) 202-225-3831

 

Fred Upton (MI-6) 202-225-3761

 

Jo Ann Emerson (MO-8) 202-225-4404

 

Mike Ferguson (NJ-7) 202-225-5361

 

Frank LoBiondo (NJ-2) 202-225-6572

 

Wayne Gilchrest (MD-1) 202-225-5311

 

James Walsh (NY-25) 202-225-3701

 

Steven LaTourette (OH-14) 202-225-5731

 

Deborah Pryce (OH-15) 202-225-2015

 

Ralph Regula (OH-16) 202-225-3876

 

Jon Porter (NV-3) 202-225-3252

 

Jim Ramstad (MN-3) 202-225-2871

 

David Reichert (WA-8) 202-225-7761

 

Christopher Shays (CT-4) 202-225-5541

 

Heather Wilson (NM-1) 202-225-6316

 

 

The National Council also urges you to continue to reach out to the following offices:

 

Rodney Alexander (LA-5) 202-225-8490

 

Judy Biggert (IL-13) 202-225-3515

 

Tim Johnson (IL-15) 202-225-2371

 

Ginny Brown-Waite (FL-5) 202-225-1002

 

Michael Castle (DE-At Large) 202-225-4165

 

Jo Ann Davis (VA-1) 202-225-4261

 

Jim Saxton (NJ-3) 202-225-4765

 

John “Randy” Kuhl (NY-29) 202-225-3161

 

Greg Walden (OR-2) 202-225-6730

 

What Should You Say?

 

To Representatives who voted “yes” on SCHIP: I am calling to thank the Representative for supporting passage of SCHIP legislation.

 

To Representatives who voted “no” on SCHIP: I am calling to urge the Representative to support passage of SCHIP legislation.

 

Talking Points:

• Currently, over 90 percent of children enrolled in SCHIP have incomes at or below twice the poverty level – or $41,300 for a family of four

• The vast majority of children who would gain coverage under both the House and Senate bills would have incomes less than twice the poverty level

Please let the National Council know if you contact a member of the House on this issue. Contact Allison Fort at allisonf@nccbh.org to let us know you participated and share the response you received from the office.

 

Background: Before adjourning for the month-long August recess, both the House and Senate passed separate bills to reauthorize and expand SCHIP, which is set to expire on September 30, 2007  - just five days from today. While both bills sought to reauthorize and expand SCHIP, differences in the two bills had to be resolved by a joint House-Senate conference committee before the legislation could be passed on to the President for final approval.

 

Under the final agreement reached by the House and Senate yesterday, funding for SCHIP would be expanded by $35 billion over the next five years. The bill includes a six-month moratorium on new regulations from CMS on both Medicaid rehabilitative services option and school-based services. The National Council has been advocating for a moratorium on rulemaking related to the rehabilitative service option along with a number of other mental health and disability groups and was one of the groups that worked to have this language included in both the House’s SCHIP bill and the final House-Senate agreement. In addition, the bill also has a new requirement that private sector SCHIP plans must cover treatment for mental illness on par with all other medical conditions.