PALLONE TO INTRODUCE BILL THAT PROHIBITS THE ADMINISTRATION FROM IMPLEMENTING HARMFUL CHILDREN'S HEALTH RULES

Long Branch, NJ --- U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, announced today that he will introduce legislation on Monday that would prohibit the Bush administration from moving forward with new rules limiting the flexibility states now have in implementing the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).            

The New Jersey congressman's legislation prohibits the implementation of an August 17th directive from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) outlining several stringent guidelines for states that provide CHIP eligibility to children above 250 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL).    

Pallone is most alarmed by the guideline that prevents states from providing access to insurance through CHIP to any newly eligible children for at least one year.  He also voiced concern over the guideline that requires states to assure that 95 percent of the children in the state below 200 percent of FPL are enrolled in the program before reaching out to children above that level.  Currently, no state meets this rigid guideline.                   

"At a time when the number of uninsured children is steadily rising, the Bush administration should not be proposing regulations that make it more difficult for states to provide children access to health insurance," Pallone said.  "Congress should not allow the Bush administration's mean-spirited campaign to proceed.  In a strong bipartisan fashion, we must reject this proposal so that states continue to have the flexibility they want in order to meet the health care needs of their children."   

Last week, the Bush administration used these new guidelines to reject a New York plan that would have increased the CHIP eligibility level there from at or below 250 percent of the FPL to at or above 400 percent of the FPL.                

In the House, Pallone is one of four authors of the Children's Health and Medicare Protection (CHAMP) Act, which strengthens CHIP by providing an additional $50 billion over the next five years so that it can cover five million uninsured children who are eligible for the program but who are not already enrolled.   

Currently, separate CHIP bills passed in the House and Senate are trying to be reconciled.  The New Jersey congressman hopes that his legislation will be included in a final conference report.  Pallone's legislation is the companion legislation to a bill introduced earlier this week in the Senate by U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA).

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