Saperstein: "This overdue legislation will provide a much-needed safety net for our nations families who are struggling in the current economic crisis."
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WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 4, 2009 - In response to todays signing into law of the Childrens Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009, Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, issued the following statement:
Today we celebrate the signing into law of the Childrens Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 and the expansion of health care coverage to over 4 million additional low-income children. This overdue legislation will provide a much-needed safety net for our nations families who are struggling in the current economic crisis.
This is a momentous day for childrens health care. We are inspired by our Jewish tradition, which teaches that, "By the breath of children, God sustains the world" (Talmud Bavli, Shabbat 119b). For more than a decade, the State Childrens Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) has sustained our nations children by helping reduce their uninsured rate by almost a third. SCHIP provides essential access to quality, affordable, life-saving and preventative care to children in working families whose parents make too much money to qualify for Medicaid, but still lack health coverage. By enacting this SCHIP renewal and expansion, we are investing in Americas future, ensuring that 11 million children, including legal immigrant children, receive the health care they deserve.
Our Movements commitment to universal healthcare is longstanding. For nearly two years, Reform Jews across the country called, emailed and visited their Members of Congress, urging the reauthorization and expansion of SCHIP so that more children in need could benefit from this essential program. We look forward to the day when all children and all Americans have access to affordable, comprehensive health care.