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House Bill Puts One Million Infants and Children at Risk of Losing Health Coverage

Posted on: Monday, 24 October 2005, 15:00 CDT

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The House Energy and Commerce committee will vote on a Medicaid bill on Thursday that could result in more than one million infants and children losing health insurance, according to research by the faith-based PICO National Network. The House bill fundamentally changes the Medicaid program, going beyond proposals made earlier in the year by the National Governors Association.

The House bill would allow access fees that deny low-income infants and children preventive care if they were unable to pay premiums that could reach up to five percent of their family income. The House bill funds a GAO study of the impact of access fees on access to health care, but the study results would come only after hundreds of thousands of children had already lost their insurance.

The Senate Finance Committee stripped access fees out of its Medicaid budget. One thousand religious congregations that make up the PICO National Network are working with national denominational leaders to press the House Energy and Commerce Committee to do the same. This is the piece of the budget that will do the most severe harm to low-income children and families.

PICO's Do No Harm: The impact of access fees on children's health care is available at http://www.piconetwork.org/Resources/ DoNoHarm.pdf.

For more information contact: Gordon Whitman at (734) 332-9792 gwhitman(At)piconetwork.org or Joe Fleming at (856) 966-8869 jfleming(At)piconetwork.org.

http://www.usnewswire.com

Source: U.S. Newswire

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