U.S. Sen. Casey: CHIP program needs to be reauthorized now
"If they're going to hold up the
Casey's father, former Gov.
Casey said approximately 180,000 children are currently enrolled in the program in
"I'm fortunate enough to have a good job and good health care that's employer sponsored; however, that's just for me," Cavara said. "If I wanted to add my children, that would be, after taxes, almost my entire paycheck. And that's just out of reach for me."
She added, "I don't know why we're debating this. We're talking about the most vulnerable population, the children, who can't go out and get a job with employer-sponsored health care."
Last week, Gov.
"We're adding one more burden onto the parent that they have to fight for insurance," said
Program funding is there, Casey said. It's only a matter of getting it passed. He said the program should have been reauthorized months ago, but Republican lawmakers were focused on repealing the Affordable Care Act.
"The original deadline was
There have been discussions of attaching the program to other legislation to get it passed through, which Casey described as "a cynical approach" to support a bipartisan, children's health-care program.
Families who have children enrolled in CHIP will begin to receive notices in the mail next month if the reauthorization isn't passed.
"Why should anyone have to spend even five minutes of the holiday worrying about whether or not their child, who's been enrolled in the
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