Faith community pushes Kuhl and Reynolds on SCHIP
I thought this was interesting — and very positive:
Representatives from Rochester’s faith community, health planning agency and Golisano Children’s Hospital at Strong made the appeal at a press conference at Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester offices in Gates.
Nearly 12,000 children in Monroe County are uninsured. About 8,000 of them could be covered by Child Health Plus if the government program was expanded, said Marvin Mich, director of social policy at Catholic Family Center.
Congress will vote Thursday whether to override a presidential veto and expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program by $35 billion over five years. The expansion would add about four million children to the program, which currently covers six million children nationwide. The program is called Child Health Plus in New York state.
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Rochester Catholic Bishop Matthew H. Clark faxed letters to Kuhl and Reynolds on Tuesday calling health care a basic right of all people.
Clark also raised concerns that if SCHIP isn’t reauthorized in time, it will have ripple effects that will hurt services to people with developmental disabilities and people with mental health needs.
The Rev. Richard Myers, president of the Greater Rochester Community of Churches, said a full year’s cost of SCHIP is less than one month’s cost of the U.S. military effort in Iraq.
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