THIS IS A PRESS RELEASE FROM THE OFFICE OF UNITED STATES SENATOR JAY ROCKEFELLER.

Washington, D.C. –Speaking on the Senate floor yesterday, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) took aim at a Bush Administration policy that is making it harder for states like West Virginia to provide health care to children through the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

Senator Rockefeller has authored a joint resolution of the Congress that would nullify the so-called August 17th Directive through the Congressional Review Act. It has been sponsored by 42 Senators.

“What’s at stake here is health care coverage for thousands of West Virginia’s children.

If this policy is allowed to go into effect children would lose access to basic medical care, including being able to see a doctor when they’re sick or get the shots they need to start out life healthy. I’m forced to ask why this, or any Administration, would want to deny health care to children,” Rockefeller said. “The policy is an outrage, and has to be stopped dead in its tracks before it does real harm to our children and jeopardizes their futures.”

The full text of Senator Rockefeller’s remarks is available on his website at http://rockefeller.senate.gov/press/ under “floor statements.” Video remarks are available at http://rockefeller.senate.gov/press/audiovideo.cfm.

Senator Rockefeller, who co-authored the CHIP program in 1996, noted that a cornerstone of the program has always been state flexibility. Moreover, at a time of growing economic uncertainty, states are struggling to cover those working families who are in need of assistance. This is particularly true when employers are reducing private coverage because of increasing economic pressures.

West Virginia has enacted legislation to cover uninsured children up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level, which is about $52,800 a year for a family of three. The state phased in coverage to 220 percent of poverty in January 2007, but has not taken any further steps to implement the planned expansion because of questionable guidance from the Bush Administration known as the August 17th Directive. As a result, at least 4,000 uninsured West Virginia children who could be covered by CHIP will likely remain uninsured.

Last year, on August 17, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a letter to all state health officials, reportedly to “clarify” existing policies and requirements for states, like West Virginia, who were seeking to expand CHIP coverage to additional children. The so-called August 17th Directive effectively mandates that any state trying to enroll children in CHIP from families earning more than 250 percent of the federal poverty level, or $44,000 for a family of three, have to first be able to prove that it has covered 95 percent of children in families earning less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level ($35,200 for a family of three).

No other voluntary federal means-tested program – not the Medicare prescription drug program nor the food stamps program – has enrollment of 95 percent.

In April of this year, the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO), the watchdog agency for the federal government, issued a report stating that the Directive violates the Congressional Review Act. The GAO concluded that the Directive is not merely a clarification of existing CHIP rules, as CMS has claimed, but rather a marked departure from long-standing CHIP policy that must be reviewed by Congress before it can take effect. CMS has refused to comply with the law and formally submit the rule to Congress for review. With less than one month before full implementation of this harmful August 17th Directive, Congress must take action to prevent it from going into effect.

Rockefeller hopes to have a vote on his resolution to nullify this policy later this month.