HOUSE Republican Leader John Boehner

Washington, Jan 12 - House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) wrote to President-elect Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) over the weekend, urging them to consider a series of principles established by House Republicans during the debate on reauthorizing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in the previous Congress.  With the House expected to consider – as soon as this week – a Democrat-authored bill to expand the children’s health care program to insure adults, illegal immigrants, and families already covered by private health plans, the GOP leaders reached out to the President-elect and Speaker in an effort to craft a bipartisan SCHIP reauthorization.

“Democrats and Republicans, in the spirit of cooperation and working together, created the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) a decade ago to give millions of low-income, American children access to high-quality health care,” wrote Boehner and Cantor.  “It is in that continuing spirit of bipartisan cooperation that, as the U.S. House of Representatives prepares to consider SCHIP legislation … we hope to work together to renew and reauthorize this important program.”

During the previous Congress, Republicans offered a set of principles outlining their priorities in the SCHIP reauthorization process.  Boehner and Cantor highlighted these priorities in their letter.  The House GOP principles follow:

- Republicans believe SCHIP must focus on the original intent of the program: cover low-income children first. 

- Only U.S. citizens and certain legal residents should be permitted to benefit from a program like SCHIP.

- Republicans believe SCHIP should not replace private health insurance or force children with private health care to move into a government run program. 

- SCHIP funding for low-income children should be stable, without using budget gimmicks that put the program in jeopardy.

“Republicans are committed to reauthorizing SCHIP in a manner that puts poor children first, which is the original intent of the program,” noted Boehner and Cantor.  “We hope that in that same vein of bipartisan cooperation, you will take Republican principles into consideration as a helpful guide as the Democratic Majority brings legislation to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.”