BY FACSIMILE

The Honorable Harry Reid
Majority Leader
United States Senate
Hart Senate Office Building, 528
Washington, DC 20510-2803

Dear Leader Reid:

I am writing on behalf of Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with over $4.5 trillion in annual revenues and more than 10 million employees. Member companies provide health insurance coverage to more than 35 million Americans, including retirees. On behalf of Business Roundtable, we urge you to support the reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) by October 1, 2007.

Business Roundtable CEOs believe our health care system must be changed to ensure all Americans have access to affordable quality health care coverage. For low-income children who have no access to private health insurance coverage SCHIP provides an important safety net. We support the reauthorization of SCHIP, but we encourage Congress to renew the program in a fiscally responsible manner. This program should offer coverage to low-income children who do not have important health insurance coverage without encouraging the dropping of private health insurance coverage.

As a member of Divided We Fail, Business Roundtable has joined with the AARP and SEIU to create a national effort designed to engage the American people, elected officials and the business community to find broad-based, bipartisan solutions to the most compelling domestic issues facing the nation: health care and the long-term financial security of Americans.

We encourage you to work together to ensure low-income, non-insured children can be covered by SCHIP. This can and should be done in a fiscally prudent way and soon. If the reauthorization of this program is not completed by October 1, 2007, we all have failed in reaching an agreement on a program whose original intention should be preserved.

Sincerely,

John J. Castellani

cc: Members of the United States Senate