Press Releases

WASHINGTON Children's Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman today praised the MediKids plan proposed by Rep. Pete Stark (D-Cal.) and Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), designed to ensure comprehensive health coverage for America's more than 9 million uninsured children. The Bush Administration's budget plans dismantle the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Medicaid and other essential services for children under the guise of state flexibility while singling out the rich for massive new tax breaks.

The Children's Defense Fund earlier this year noted that the cost of the Bush Administration's dividend tax cut proposal alone is enough to provide comprehensive health care for all 9.2 million uninsured American children and Head Start for all the unserved eligible and disadvantaged preschool children in need of comprehensive services that prepare them for school and a productive future.

STATEMENT OF CDF HEALTH POLICY DIRECTOR GREGG HAIFLEY

It is time to move a positive agenda forward for the more than 9 million uninsured children in the country rather than undermining programs like CHIP and Medicaid as President Bush has proposed. The President's proposal provides strikingly irresponsible tax cuts, borrowing money we don't have to spend where it isn't needed. Our responsibility to our children requires that we reject the billions in giveaways masquerading as economic stimulus.

Instead of giving an average of $89,000 to each millionaire in new tax cuts this year, as the President proposes, the MediKids program proposed today recognizes that this country has the resources to give every child the health care he or she needs if we make the right choices. Just one part of the Bush Administration's 2003 tax plan, the elimination of taxes on stock dividends, would pay for comprehensive health insurance for all uninsured children and Head Start for every unserved eligible preschool child who needs it.

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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.