Kentucky.gov

FRANKFORT, Ky.— Gov. Steve Beshear today called upon members of Kentucky’s congressional delegation to reauthorize the bipartisan State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which was created in 1997 to provide health-care coverage for children whose families make too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to afford private insurance. The U.S. House is expected to vote today on H.R. 2, the SCHIP bill.

In a letter sent to each member of Kentucky’s delegation, Gov. Beshear urged Senators McConnell and Bunning and Congressmen Chandler, Davis, Guthrie, Rogers, Whitfield and Yarmuth to strongly support this critical program.

“We must not underestimate the value of comprehensive and preventive health care for our children,” Gov. Beshear said in the letter. “Healthy children are more productive students and more successful adults. With families struggling through this global economic crisis, it is more important than ever for SCHIP to be reauthorized.”

The Kentucky’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (KCHIP), created in 1999 and funded by SCHIP, has provided more than 290,000 children with health-care coverage during its nearly 10 years of operation.  In November 2008, Gov. Beshear implemented an enhanced effort to enroll more eligible children in KCHIP, with the goal of covering 35,000 more eligible children in the program by 2010, while also increasing the retention rates of children currently enrolled in KCHIP.

Copies of Gov. Beshear’s letter to members of Kentucky’s congressional delegation can be downloaded here.

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