Press Releases

Congressman Roscoe Bartlett Says He’s Confident S-CHIP Will Continue & Is Hopeful for Improvements

Washington, Oct 18, 2007 -

Congressman Roscoe Bartlett recorded a statement concerning today’s vote by the House of Representatives about a bill to expand the S-CHIP program. The vote was 273-156, 13 votes short of the required 2/3 majority to override the President’s veto. Congressman Bartlett again voted against the proposed expansion of S-CHIP. The mp3 file is available upon request.

“This is Congressman Roscoe Bartlett.

“I am really concerned that children of working poor families will have better health care coverage. That’s why I helped to create the S-CHIP program, which provides health insurance for these children. I am confident that this important children’s health care program will continue. The extension until November 16 allows time for a better bipartisan solution.

“Today, I have co-sponsored a bill to continue and improve S-CHIP. This new bill will make great strides towards helping 75,000 children of working poor families in Maryland who currently have no healthcare coverage and would not have been helped by the expansion bill that I opposed.

“This new bill includes three improvements for children that I support:

• “One. Continuation of S-CHIP with better outreach to cover more children of working poor families.

• “Two. Refundable tax credits to many middle income working families making up to $62,000 to make health care insurance more affordable.

• “And lastly, it has flexibility for Maryland and other states to expand S-CHIP to enroll children of higher income families paid for with their own state taxpayers’ funds.”