| For Immediate Release November 29, 2007 |
For More Information Contact: Ed Shelleby (202) 662-3624 |
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) today unveiled several new interactive tools on its website designed to inform journalists, bloggers, Congressional staff and the public about the current status of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and to provide a context for recent legislative actions and their projected implications for children’s coverage. The tools include an SCHIP reauthorization timeline, a map of states projected to experience SCHIP shortfalls unless Congress increases funding, and a counter that continuously calculates the number of children born without health insurance since the Congress convened in January 2007.
INTERACTIVE TIMELINE: Next week, Congress will continue negotiations on SCHIP legislation that has been compromised several times over the course of just the past few months. In an effort to bring some clarity to the confusing sequence of events, CDF has created an interactive timeline that includes major Congressional and Bush Administration actions relating to SCHIP reauthorization. The timeline begins with the House’s passage of the initial SCHIP reauthorization bill in August of 2007 and will be updated regularly as SCHIP discussions continue. To view or link to the timeline, visit: www.childrensdefense.org/SCHIPupdate
BORN UNINSURED COUNTER: Every 41 seconds a child in the United States is born without health coverage. CDF’s website features a counter that tracks the number of uninsured children born since the 110th Congress commenced on January 4, 2007. Today, that number is nearly 700,000. This counter is an up-to-the-minute measure of the effect of Congress’s and President Bush’s failure to provide health coverage to all of our nation’s uninsured children and pregnant women. To download or link to this free counter, visit: www.childrensdefense.org/healthychildcounter
INTERACTIVE MAP: The situation for our nation’s children will get even worse if Congress does not act soon to increase funding for SCHIP. In order to provide more time for negotiations, Congress passed a continuing resolution (CR) that funds SCHIP at FY 2007 levels through December 14, 2007. Unless Congress provides additional funds to 21 states that are projected to face shortfalls under current funding levels, thousands of children could be at risk of losing their health coverage. A few states are already developing plans to either cut or limit enrollment. CDF’s website now features an interactive map that identifies those 21 states and the month each is projected to run out of money. To view or link to the map, visit: www.childrensdefense.org/SCHIPupdate
For more information on CDF’s Healthy Child Campaign to provide health coverage to the more than nine million uninsured children in America, visit www.childrensdefense.org/healthychild.
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