FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 22, 2007

Letter to the House Ways & Means Committee

May 22, 2007

The Honorable Charles Rangel
Chairman,
House Ways & Means Committee
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Jim McCrery
Ranking Member,
House Ways & Means Committee
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Representatives:

As the House Ways & Means Committee considers some of our nation's most important domestic issues this year, we would like to voice our support for the key priority of reauthorizing and expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The Partnership for Quality Care, a unique coalition of our nation's caregivers and providers devoted to reforming health care, strongly supports reauthorization and expansion of this successful, bi-partisan program that provides states with the flexibility to tailor the program to address their particular goals and circumstances.

The PQC encourages you to provide states with an increase of $50 billion over the next 5 years over and above current spending to enable states to continue to cover the children currently covered by SCHIP, undertake outreach to enroll the millions of families who are eligible but not enrolled, and expand coverage at their option.

We were pleased to see that a proposed increase in the federal tobacco tax received such strong bipartisan support in the Senate earlier this year and we encourage your Committee to support an equivalent measure in the House. Federal tobacco revenue was used to finance the creation of SCHIP in 1997, and we support the use of this revenue source to fund the reauthorization and expansion of SCHIP. Tobacco taxes are a proven deterrent to smoking, especially for young people. They may also yield long-term benefit to the health care system by decreasing the rate of tobacco-related diseases.

As a coalition of frontline workers and leaders in the health care delivery system, we are committed to reform that covers all Americans and improves our health care system. The reauthorization and expansion of SCHIP will enable more individuals to receive health insurance, and improve the functioning of our health care system by increasing access to primary and preventive care. Uninsured individuals are at greater risk of inadequate access to such care. By providing comprehensive coverage to more low-income individuals and families, SCHIP promotes prevention and early treatment of diseases at the earliest and most costeffective stages, instead of treating them when patients are in crisis in emergency rooms. Using funds from an increased tobacco tax to support these efforts will have the added benefit of improving public health by decreasing smoking, especially among youth.

Sincerely,

Catholic Healthcare West
Daughters of Charity Health System
Greater New York Hospital Association
Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals
Los Angeles County Department of Health Services
Service Employees International Union
United Healthcare Workers-West
1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East
cc: Senate Finance Committee Members
House Ways & Means Committee Members

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