It’s easy for us as LGBT parents to focus all our political energies on LGBT-specific issues. I’m often guilty of it myself, especially as parenthood has reduced my available bandwidth for anything not related to teddy bears or Thomas the Tank Engine.
I just received an invitation, however, from Families USA, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization advocating high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans. They are holding a public conference call next week titled “What is the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and What are its Prospects for Reauthorization?” It reminded me of the many parenting issues that aren’t LGBT issues per se, but deserve our attention as parents and citizens.
Here’s a quick summary of SCHIP from the Families USA site (PDF link):
The State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) was enacted by Congress in 1997 to increase health insurance coverage for low-income children. At the time, more than 10 million children lacked health insurance. . . . The SCHIP program gave states a total of $40 billion over 10 years to provide health coverage for these children, who lived in families that earned too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to afford private insurance. . . . Reauthorizing the SCHIP program will be one of the more important tasks before Congress in 2007.
It’s not a simple matter of reauthorization, however. The think-tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities offers its analysis of what will happen if SCHIP is reauthorized but its budget is not increased:
If SCHIP is reauthorized but funding is frozen over the 2008-2012 period . . .
- in 2008, some 24 states will face a combined shortfall of $1.5 billion to $1.6 billion, equivalent to the cost of insuring up to 989,000 low-income children; and
- by 2012, some 36 states will face a combined shortfall of $3.5 billion to $4.3 billion, equivalent to the cost of insuring up to 2.1 million low-income children.
If you are interested in the conference call, RSVP online to receive call-in information. The call will be Tuesday, December 19th, 2006 at 3:00 p.m. EST, and led by Rachel Klein and Lena O’Rourke from Families USA, and Jocelyn Moore from the staff of Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-West Virginia).