Washington, DC – Ways & Means Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI) issued the following statement today after passage of children’s healthcare legislation that is woefully flawed.  The legislation is a thinly-veiled attempt to push individuals onto government-run healthcare with a stealth funding mechanism that requires the program to be funded by close to 20 million new smokers:

 “SCHIP should remain first and foremost a program to ensure children in families without the means to pay for health insurance have the coverage they need.  This bill, however, shifts the focus to cover families making nearly $90,000 a year, before covering the millions of low-income children who are currently eligible for SCHIP but not enrolled.  I think that is a mistake.  Worse yet, Congress has failed to adequately fund this program—putting thousands of children at risk of losing their coverage in just a few short years.”

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