Martin Luther King Jr.
January 10, 2018
Dismayed by
Failure to Fund
Kids’ Healthcare
Continued from Page 21 “For those of us who are in
by the failure of Congressio-
nal leadership to reauthorize
the Children’s Health Insur-
ance Program for the long-
term,”
Congresswoman
Bonamici said. “Republicans
just added about $1.5 trillion
to the debt with their tax bill
and they are now insisting that
we cut prevention and public
health programs to pay for
children’s health insurance.
That’s wrong.”
A bipartisan bill that would
extend CHIP passed unani-
mously by the Senate Finance
Committee, but the Senate
majority has not allowed it
to see the floor. Instead, Con-
gress included a three-month
extension of the program in an
appropriations bill passed last
month.
“Federal leaders should
unite, put aside political games-
manship and fund the CHIP
program.” Gov. Brown said.
“Unfortunately, majority lead-
ership in Congress is focused
on looking out for the wealthy
and well-connected. Here in
Oregon we’re focused on the
people, not the powerful.”
A pediatrician at the rally,
Ben Hoffman, told the Portland
Observer he’s seen the impact
the uncertainty of the funding
has had on families.
“People are scared. Peo-
ple don’t know what they’re
going to do if they lose their
healthcare,” Hoffman said.
the trenches, we have to look
these families in the eyes, these
parents, and help them come
to terms with what they might
do if they lose access to health
insurance. It’s really a horrible
thing…the message needs to
get to DC that we can’t hold
these families hostage.”
Sen. Merkley told the Port-
land Observer his thoughts
were on the next steps needed
to address the issue with other
lawmakers.
“It needs to part of the com-
prehensive funding package.
Right now, the government is
running out of money on Jan-
uary 19th so we expect this
package to be put together over
the next few days…we need to
have a lot of pressure applied,”
Merkley said. “It’s absolutely
outrageous that my Republican
colleagues have been focusing
on raiding the treasury for the
rich while neglecting working
Americans.”
Prior to a three month tem-
porary extension of the pro-
gram, Gov. Brown had directed
the Oregon Health Authority to
extend coverage of CHIP in
Oregon through April using
leftover funds to cover it.
The CHIP program, called
Oregon Healthy Kids in Ore-
gon, covers kids and pregnant
women from low to middle in-
come families whose income is
too high to receive Medicaid,
but too low to purchase cover-
age themselves.
Those who are not looking for
happiness are the most likely to find
it, because those who are searching
forget that the
surest way to be
happy is to seek
happiness for
others.
--Martin Luther
King Jr.
2018 special edition
Page 23