By JOSEPH GIDJUNIS Courier-Post Staff • January 26, 2009CAMDEN - Seventh and eighth graders at St. Joseph's Pro-Cathedral Elementary School stood in frigid temperatures Monday morning holding signs asking Congress to pass legislation reauthorizing and expanding health care for low-income children.
Members of the Camden Churches Organized for People, spoke about the need to reauthorize and expand SCHIP, or the State Children's Health Insurance Program. This federal program is funded jointly by Washington and each state, to cover children in low-income families - but these families make too much money to qualify under Medicaid. The additional aid money would come from a increase in the national tobacco tax.
Two years ago the expansion of the program was vetoed by former President George W. Bush, arguing that children and their families had reasonable alternatives such as community health centers and emergency rooms to meet their needs, said Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., NJ-R. Now with President Barack Obama in office, the legislation is expected to pass. The House passed the bill Jan. 14, 244-178, according to the Congressional Record.
"The biggest group of uninsured Americans is children," Pallone said on the steps of the Camden school. "Children should be able to go to a doctor on a regular basis."
Pallone said it's not only important to pass the legislation, but make efforts to register more children because many aren't receiving the aid their entitled to receive.
New Jersey Senator Frank Pallone Jr., answering an 8th-grader's question
at the press conference
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