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Home > News > Voices for Ohio’s Children Thanks Legislators and Advocates; Regrets Failure to Override SCHIP Veto

Letter to Congress - from the USSGs

Voices for Ohio’s Children Thanks Legislators and Advocates; Regrets Failure to Override SCHIP Veto

October 18, 2007— Today, despite the overwhelming support of Ohio’s legislative leaders and the American people, the U.S. House of Representatives failed to override President Bush’s veto of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Thirteen of Ohio’s U.S. House of Representatives members, Republicans and Democrats, voted for the override, while four—Representatives Boehner, Chabot, Jordan and Schmidt—did not.

“Voices for Ohio’s Children is grateful to the Congressional leaders who came together across party lines for the sake of our children, and also to the thousands of Ohio citizens who raised their voices on behalf of SCHIP. However, despite their efforts and the pleas from Ohio families that have nowhere to turn for their children’s health coverage, today President Bush and his allies turned their backs on Emily Demko and thousands of other Ohio children,” said Voices for Ohio’s Children Executive Director Amy Swanson.

Last week, Voices for Ohio’s Children and its partners ran an SCHIP ad campaign in newspapers around the state . The ads featured a photo of Emily Demko, a three-year old from Albany, Ohio (pictured on the right) whose Down Syndrome makes her essentially uninsurable on the private market. Emily was covered through SCHIP until earlier this year, when her father’s income rose just a few hundred dollars above the limit. Her family is expecting that her SCHIP coverage will resume when Ohio’s new children’s health insurance expansion takes effect in January 2008.

“Today, children like Emily who need SCHIP are left paying the price for President Bush’s partisan gamesmanship. We call on leaders from both political parties to recognize the urgency of children’s health coverage and the public’s overwhelming support for SCHIP by reaching a strong compromise measure immediately.”

Additional information on the SCHIP debate:

CCF's new fact sheet "$83,000 SCHIP Family Doesn't Exist"
CBPP's new paper responding to the Administration's "poor children first" claims: POOR CHILDREN FIRST — OR LAST? Watch What the Administration is Doing, Not What It Is Saying
Joint CBPP/Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids paper: Expanding Children's Health Insurance and Raising Federal Tobacco Taxes Helps Low-Income Families
A series of fact sheets by Families USA to CHIP-ing away at the common CHIP myths: