Children's Health Still Matters!

Since the creation of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), Catholic Charities agencies across the country and Catholic Charities USA have worked aggressively to ensure that children would benefit from the program. During the Children’s Health Matters initiative, we assisted nearly 600,000 families in applying for Medicaid and SCHIP, held 8,500 community education events about the availability of insurance, and worked with state Medicaid agencies to simplify enrollment.

Our commitment to children’s health care remains strong today— we must press on towards the goal It’s time that all our nation’s children got the health coverage they need. Let your Senator know children’s health still matters

ACTION NEEDED the Senate Finance Committee is currently drafting legislation to change SCHIP. Ask your Senator to craft SCHIP policy that:

• Ensures the full $50 billon provided by the Budget Resolution will be available for program improvements
• Simplifies the SCHIP enrollment and application process for families
• Continues allowing states to insure children in families above 200 percent of poverty;
• Allows states to serve vulnerable populations, including immigrant children and pregnant women and youth aging out of foster care; and
• Fixes the citizenship documentation requirement

To see a list of Senators on the Finance Committee, click

BACKGROUND: SCHIP provides high quality, vital health coverage to 6 million children whose families would otherwise be unable to afford insurance.

For more information, please contact Desmond Brown, dbrown@catholiccharitiesusa.org, or Karen Wong, kwong@catholiccharitiesusa.org,