Thursday, May 28, 2009

Texas CHIP Bill is in peril!

Governor Rick Perry has stated he is not in support of the CHIP expansion (buy-in) bill that would provide insurance for 80,000 uninsured Texas children, including those like our KayTar who are considered uninsurable and fall through the cracks of the for-profit insurance industry. If the bill makes it to his desk, there are major concerns that it will be vetoed based on what he has said. This bill has had strong bipartisan support, as well as strong support from the business community in Texas, and should not be facing a veto at the hands of the governor.

If you live in Texas and want to help, here is what you can do:

-Contact Rick Perry's office by email and/or by telephone (800) 252-9600 and say "I and the majority of Texans DO support CHIP"

-Contact Speaker Straus by email and/or telephone (888)327-2086

-Contact your local representative (you can find out who your representative is here)

***There has been a change, the amendment I mentioned was voted off, so when you call your Rep and the Speaker, say, "Pass CHIP buy-in. A clear vehicle already exists in SB 841 and HB 2962."****

All kids in Texas deserve access to affordable, comprehensive healthcare, regardless of their health status or income, let's remind our legislators of this.

Please feel free to pass this along!

7 comments:

natalie said...

If we don't live in Texas, is there anything we can do?

I'll post a link tomorrow to your post so if I happen to have any TX readers that aren't familiar with your blog (I have no idea who that would be!), they can help.

Why in the world would the Gov. NOT support this bill??? That doesn't really make sense to me at all.

Junie's Blog said...

I wish I could help as a non-Texan or even an non-American! How awful to get that far and then be vetoed. Why will he do that?

Jaden Paige said...

Oh no, I'm sorry Kyla! I wish I could help from NH- is there anything we can do?! I'm going to tweet your link in hopes that there are some other Texans on there who would be willing to help...

Julie Pippert said...

Kyla, give me a call, am endeavoring to rally troops now.

Julie Pippert said...

To Kyla's out of state friends, you can call in with an opinion:

Information and Referral and Opinion Hotline [for Austin, Texas and out-of-state callers] :
(512) 463-1782

It may not weigh as much as Texans, but it counts and we GREATLY appreciate it!!!!

Kat said...

Emails sent to our governor and the speaker. Hope it helps, guess we will see soon enuf.

Jenny, the Bloggess said...

I'm just now getting to my emails. Totally confused on this. How can veto this? Isn't it federal? Tell me what to do, chica.

(Sorry, I'm on no sleep this week. Not making sense probably.)