More on SCHIP

Following up on my posts earlier today on SCHIP and depressing economic statistics, I see that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has posted an item on her blog, The Gavel, pointing out that the U.S. Census Report released today illustrates why Congress needs to pass legislation strengthening SCHIP:

The report shows that for the second year in a row, the number of uninsured children increased, leaving a total of 8.7 million children without health care coverage. That is unacceptable.

Democrats urge the President to end his veto threats and join the vast majority of Americans in supporting our efforts to ensure that all eligible children have the health insurance they deserve.

On a related point, you may be wondering how the public in general feels about expanding SCHIP. Jason Sanford at the excellent blog Ohio Health Policy Review has the data:

The 2007 Ohio Health Issues Poll asked Ohioans if they favored expanding SCHIP (or Healthy Start, as the program is known in Ohio) to include all uninsured children in the state. 86% of Ohioans said they would favor the expansion. The poll was completed as part of the Ohio Poll and complete results and methodology are available in a PDF download from the Health Foundation's website. These results mirror a new poll on the same issue from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

So, public support for expanding SCHIP is very strong.