HEALTH REFORM: Obama Signs SCHIP Reauthorization

Just hours after receiving final approval in the House by a margin of 145 votes, legislation reauthorizing the State Children's Health Insurance Program has been signed into law by President Obama. He made clear that expanding coverage for low-income kids is the first, but by no means the last, step his administration plans to take toward his goal of making sure all Americans have health coverage.

H.R. 2 provides the program with an additional $32.8 billion, preserving coverage for about seven million low-income children currently enrolled and extending coverage to an additional four million previously uninsured kids.

During a signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House, President Obama asserted the importance of the program saying no child should be "receiving their primary care in the emergency room in the middle of the night. "

"In a decent society, there are certain obligations not subject to trade offs or negotiations," Obama said. "Health care for our children is one of them."

Flanked by a bipartisan group of Congressional leaders, Obama said that coverage to 11 million children "is a down payment on my commitment to cover every single American," and that the legislation was "just one component of a much broader effort to finally bring our health care system into the 21st century."

That broader reform, Obama acknowledged, won't be easy, and it won't happen all at once. But reauthorizing and expanding SCHIP, he said, "is a critical first step."