House passes children's health and medicare protection act

Washington, D.C.- Congressman Sanford Bishop has announced that the full House of Representatives approved the Children's Health and Medicare Protection (CHAMP) Act of 2007 which reauthorizes the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) for 6 million children and provides an additional 5 million children with health coverage. This includes securing funding for 343,700 Georgia children and providing the state with funding to reach an additional 210,000. The CHAMP Act also stops a scheduled 10 percent payment cut to physicians and improves Medicare benefits for over 357,000 Georgia seniors.

Following his vote in favor of the legislation, Congressman Bishop issued the following statement:

"Since its inception in 1997, I have been a steadfast proponent of SCHIP. This was perhaps most evident in January of this year when PeachCare, Georgia's SCHIP funded program, faced a $131 million shortfall. I hosted a bi-partisan delegation of Georgia lawmakers and public health officials who came to Washington to persuade the House leadership to fix the problem. In May, Congress approved and the President signed into law legislation which eliminated the shortfall faced by Georgia and other states.

While my support of children's health care has never been in question, my vote today in favor of the bill was a difficult choice. I'm very uncomfortable with voting for any excise tax, especially one as regressive as a tobacco tax. The CHAMP Act presents a dilemma: improve access to health insurance for our youngest and most vulnerable citizens, or oppose the legislation to avoid causing harm to the many retailers and employees whose livelihoods depend upon the sale of tobacco, as well as the state and local governments that depend upon revenues generated from tobacco sales.

This is not a perfect bill. But let us not let the "perfect" be the enemy of the "good." This bill will ensure our children grow up healthy and strong, save millions of dollars for the taxpayers who pick up the tab for indigent care in emergency rooms, strengthen access to health care in rural America, and protect our nation's seniors by giving them the health care they deserve."

For a more information about the CHAMP Act, please visit the House Energy and Commerce web site: http:// energycommerce.house.gov/ CHAMP/CHAMP_index. shtml