Indianapolis, IN -- President Obama's approval today of a bipartisan bill to strengthen the State Children's Health Insurance Program couldn't have happened without groundwork by Congressmen Hill, Ellsworth, Donnelly, Carson and Visclosky and their colleagues Senators Bayh and Lugar -- paving the way for a broader effort to finally fix our broken health care system.

"The Indiana Delegation stood up for Indiana's children by voting to ensure they have access to the health care they need," said Chris Brinkman, Director of the Change That Works Campaign in Indiana. "Our economy is in crisis and too many families are forced to choose between caring for their sick child and paying their bills. I am looking forward to working with Congressman Hill to get our economy back on track, by fixing our broken healthcare system."

Right now in Indiana:

• The cost to the average Hoosier family for health care is $12,222 per year.


• Only 41% of small businesses (50 or fewer employees) offer health insurance to their employees.


• There are 131,000 Children uninsured in Indiana. 67.1% of those come from families with at least one parent working full time.

Amy Mattox of Crawfordsville, Indiana, has a 5 and half year old daughter who is currently enrolled in Hoosier Healthwise. Amy has been without health insurance since 2003 and currently has not insurance as a home health care worker. Her daughter was covered under her husband's insurance but was laid off at the end of last month. They were paying about $300 per month to enroll in that insurance. The funding that will come from the SCHIP program to Hoosier Healthwise will help provide the necessary funding to help children like Amy's daughter.

The two million-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the nation's largest union of healthcare workers, recently launched "Change That Works," a new state-by-state effort to bring economic relief to millions across the country, help fix the nation's broken healthcare system and guarantee workers can freely decide whether to join with their coworkers in a union. The "Change That Works" campaign builds on the successful work that helped elect an unprecedented number of pro-working family candidates in November. More on "Change That Works" can be found at http://www.seiu.org/changethatworks/.