Denver, CO - Colorado Democratic Party Chair Pat Waak today called on President Bush to forgo his veto threat of the Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and provide insurance to Colorado's uninsured and underinsured children.

"The number one issue in this country is access to health care. The most vulnerable population is our children." said Waak. "The majority of the Congress understands that health insurance for children is an absolute necessity. Shame on President Bush for treating SCHIP as a political poker chip."

President Bush has threatened to veto the bipartisan SCHIP legislation thereby denying tens of thousands of Colorado children basic health care coverage. While many democrats and republicans have supported the legislation Colorado's Senator Wayne Allard and Representatives Tancredo, Musgrave and Lamborn have also stood in its path. President Bush and his Republican allies are making it harder for states to enroll children into the state children's health program, which currently provides health care coverage to over 6 million children nationwide. The Washington Post and New York Times reported that under a new Bush Administration policy directive, states "must first ensure that the child is uninsured for at least one year" prior to enrolling a child in a state children's health program, and have to prove "that at least 95 percent of children from families making less than 200 percent of the poverty level have been enrolled in the children's health insurance program or Medicaid," which as the Washington Post notes, "no state has yet managed." [Washington Post, 8/21/07] The New York Times cited testimony from state officials who made it clear the Bush policy "could cripple their efforts to cover more children and would impose standards that could not be met." [New York Times, 8/21/07]

Today there are 70,000 children enrolled in Colorado's CHIP program and getting the health care they deserve so that they can lead healthy and productive lives. Democratic Representatives Mark Udall, Diana DeGette, Ed Perlmutter and John Salazar supported the renewal of the state children's health insurance program and improving it to make coverage available for more children in middle income families in Colorado. The Bush Administration's new policies follow a Presidential veto threat of the renewal of the program, and will have a chilling effect on states trying to provide coverage to more children who would qualify for coverage under the new Democratic legislation.