S-CHIP Reauthorization
Last week, both houses of Congress took taken action toward renewing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP), the program administered in partnership with states to provide health insurance coverage for children in low income, working families who would otherwise be uninsured. PeachCare for Kids is the Georgia version of S-CHIP, which is set to expire on September 30.
The Senate passed an S-CHIP renewal bill (HR976), with a vote of 68-31, that provides $35 billion in new funding for the program over five years through a 61-cent-per-pack tobacco tax increase. The House approved its own S-CHIP legislation, the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act (CHAMP Act, HR 3162) by a vote of 225-204. The House legislation would increase S-CHIP funding by $50 billion over five years and would increase the federal cigarette tax by 45 cents per pack. The House bill also expands Medicaid and S-CHIP to legal immigrant children and pregnant women.
Both pieces of legislation will go to conference committee before being sent to the President’s desk for a signature. President Bush has threatened to veto both bills. Congress is currently on a three week summer recess and will reconvene in September to begin work on the legislation. For more information, see the G-CAPP web site.
Title V Abstinence Education Funding
In addition to reauthorizing S-CHIP, the House CHAMP Act addresses Title V of the Social Security Act, which currently provides states with $50 million in funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. The bill reauthorizes the Title V program and adds new provisions that:
• Require funded programs to contain medically and scientifically accurate information
• Give states the flexibility to use funds for more comprehensive programs which discuss abstinence, but may also include information on birth control
• Require funded programs to have been proven effective at decreasing teen pregnancy, STD, and HIV/AIDS rates
The Senate has not yet acted on Title V reauthorization. Unless reauthorized, the Title V program is also set to expire on September 30, 2007, after being given a three month extension at the end of June.
For more information visit the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation or the
Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States.
G-CAPP Training Opportunity
G-CAPP is hosting a pre-conference institute, "Teen Pregnancy Prevention: Using What Works", at the 2007 Georgia Public Health Association (GPHA) Conference on September 4th in Savannah. This FREE training with national experts from Healthy Teen Network is an exciting opportunity for adolescent service providers and health professionals from across the state to learn how to identify and implement effective adolescent pregnancy and STD/HIV prevention programs in their communities.
Please visit our web site or the GPHA web site for more information.
G-CAPP Fast Fact
Young women in foster care are 2.5 times more likely than those not in foster care to experience a teen pregnancy.
Source: Healthy Teen Network.
