Statement by the Press Secretary on SCHIP

President Bush strongly supports reauthorizing the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in a way that puts poor children first, so he is pleased the House of Representatives voted today to sustain his veto of misguided legislation that would have expanded SCHIP to higher income households while increasing taxes. Because Congress passed legislation last year to extend SCHIP until March 31, 2009, we can be assured that low-income children will continue to have coverage. Ultimately our goal should be to move children who have no health insurance to private coverage -- not to move children who already have private insurance to government coverage.