Press Releases

WASHINGTON Children's Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman today joined organizations representing millions of women and children, people with disabilities, and the elderly to call on our nation's Governors to reject the Bush Administration's block grant proposal to dismantle Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The National Governors Association will discuss Medicaid policy today at their Winter Meeting in Washington at a time when health care costs and the number of uninsured are soaring. More than 9 million children lack health coverage and every 59 seconds a new baby is born without health insurance.

Under what the Administration calls "state flexibility," states facing the worst budget crisis in recent history would receive a block grant that would merge CHIP and Medicaid into a capped pool of money, forcing children, persons with disabilities, and the elderly to compete for limited resources. Health coverage for at least one in three of the nearly 30 million children now served by CHIP and Medicaid would be at risk.

STATEMENT OF MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN

Governors should refuse to participate in the Bush Administration's budget war against children. The President's budget threatens the progress Governors have made in insuring low-income children through CHIP and Medicaid.

This country has the resources to give every child the health care he or she needs if we make the right choices. Instead, the President wants to give an average of $89,000 to each millionaire in new tax cuts this year while dismantling CHIP and Medicaid - programs that have proven track records for helping children get the health care they need.

More than 9 million children lack health coverage. A new baby is born every 59 seconds without health insurance. Health care costs and the number of uninsured people are rising. Rather than proposing a comprehensive health care agenda for the more than 41 million uninsured Americans, the Bush budget puts the coverage of millions of children, persons with disabilities, and the elderly at risk.

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The mission of the Children's Defense Fund is to Leave No Child Behind and to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. CDF provides a strong, effective voice for all the children of America who cannot vote, lobby, or speak for themselves. We pay particular attention to the needs of poor and minority children and those with disabilities. CDF educates the nation about the needs of children and encourages preventive investment before they get sick, into trouble, drop out of school, or suffer family breakdown. CDF began in 1973 and is a private, nonprofit organization supported by foundation and corporate grants and individual donations. We have never taken government funds.