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Gov.
Blagojevich joins seven other governors in lawsuit to secure health
insurance for children
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Lawsuit
challenges new federal SCHIP eligibility guidelines that limit
states' flexibility to cover children
[October 02, 2007]
SPRINGFIELD -- In a continued
effort to ensure all children in Illinois have access to affordable
health care, Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich announced Tuesday that he is
joining governors from across the country in pursuing a multistate
legal challenge to eligibility guidelines for the new federal State
Children's Health Insurance Program. The eight-state action was
triggered in August when the federal Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services imposed new eligibility rules that block states
from expanding their children's health insurance programs. New York,
Arizona, California, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New Hampshire
and Washington will participate in litigation against the Bush
administration.
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 "Regardless of political affiliation, most of us agree that every
child deserves a chance to see a doctor and get the medical care
they need," said Blagojevich. "In Illinois, we became the first
state to make sure that all kids have access to health care their
parents can afford. And while we've taken the lead at the state
level in implementing a program that meets the needs of Illinois'
families, the federal government has an obligation to these same
families. For years, SCHIP has been a key component of the federal
government's response to the growing health care crisis in our
country. If the Bush administration ignores its responsibility to
our children, despite Congress' overwhelming support for an expanded
and flexible SCHIP, we're prepared to join with other states in
asking the courts to intervene."The lawsuit will specifically
challenge the rules that conflict with the SCHIP statute and were
issued without an opportunity for public comment as required by the
federal Administrative Procedures Act. The states are seeking a
ruling from the court declaring those rules to be unlawful and
prohibiting the federal government from applying the guidelines when
reviewing individual state plans submitted under SCHIP.
"With the health of our nation's children hanging in the balance,
President Bush is preparing to veto a bipartisan compromise that
Congress has forged to ensure that all of this nation's children are
assured quality health care," said New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer. "I
call upon the president to reconsider and sign the bill Congress has
sent him. If he insists on denying our nation's children with a
healthy start in life by vetoing the bill, Congress must override
the veto. If this bill does not become law, we will proceed with our
lawsuit. Our kids deserve nothing less."
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Blagojevich has been working with the Illinois delegation, as well
as other governors, to ensure that funding continues for the SCHIP
program, which has helped to provide health care for over 316,000
Illinois children since inception.
Congress created SCHIP in 1997 as a bipartisan approach to
address the growing number of children without health insurance in
America. According to the Congressional Research Service, however,
40 states now have expenditures greater than their federal SCHIP
allotment per year, and at least 14 states faced federal matching
shortfalls for fiscal 2007.
In January, the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured,
one of the nation's most respected independent health policy
research organizations, released a report crediting Blagojevich's
administration for sparking a national movement to provide health
care to all children. Over the last year, Pennsylvania and
Massachusetts have followed Illinois' lead to provide health care to
more uninsured children, and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
has announced his proposal to do the same.
In November 2005, the governor signed the All Kids program into
law, making health care affordable for the families of every
uninsured child in the state. All Kids made Illinois the first state
in the nation to offer affordable, comprehensive health coverage to
every uninsured child. Under Blagojevich, the state has provided
health coverage to more than 360,000 children.
[Text from file received from
the
Illinois Office of
Communication and Information]
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