CHILDREN IN CRISIS: The Story of CHIP

<Voice-Over> <Voice-Over> <Voice-Over> BILL FLANAGAN- In 1979, about half of the region's economy relied on the steel industry.

When steel went down in the space of just a few years, the region suffered a net loss of about 150,000 jobs.

PASTOR GROPP- Literally people were starving.

People were jumping off bridges.

PROTESTER- We want jobs!

REV.

DR. JOHN T. GALLOWAY, JR- They're really hurting.

How do I take care of my kids?

You don't just hear that and ignore it.

ALLEN KUKOVICH- Whenever government does do something right, it usually comes from people in the communities.

CHARLIE LAVALLEE- We got to be part of something that changed the nation for children.

FRED ROGERS- The Caring Program for children.

BILL ISLER- Whatever Fred needed to do to let families know that this was available, he would do.

ROBERT CASEY, JR.- That became the inspiration for federal legislation JIMMY KIMMEL- It's called CHIP.

CHIP is the Children's Health Insurance Program.

NIKKI BAGBY- It is hope.

MEGAN PIPER- Lifesaving for us.

CHARLIE LAVALLEE- No one ever would have dreamed that from responding to our own kids, it would help 100 million children.

CHIQUITA BROOKS-LASURE- It is not a permanent program.

It has to be reauthorized.

NANETTE BARRAGN- Families don't know if they're going to have health insurance for their children in the next year.

BRUCE LESLEY- People threaten the Children's Health Insurance Program repeatedly over its life course.

GEORGE W. BUSH- Their proposal is beyond the scope of the program.

BARACK OBAMA- There's a fear of change.

DONALD TRUMP- It's dead, totally dead.

JIMMY KIMMEL- This is not a hypothetical, about 2 million CHIP kids have serious chronic conditions.

RACHEL BOGDAN- When you play politics with these programs, you're playing with people's lives.

ROBERT CASEY, JR.- This wouldn't have happened unless you had the steel workers and advocates on their behalf willing to make a case for their children.

WILBERTA PICKETT- And it is.

It's an amazing story.

- [Announcer] Major funding is provided by the ETV Endowment of South Carolina.

Through the generosity of our members and donors for more than 40 years, the ETV Endowment has made it possible for stories like Children in Crisis to be shared.

Thank you for your support.

And by Highmark Health, working to improve the health and wellbeing of those we serve by giving back to, reinvesting in, and strengthening communities where our customers and employees live, work, and play.

JOAN ALKER- Here in the United States, we have a very unique system of health care, and having health insurance is the price of admission.

DR. ALAN KOHRT- One of the most important things about having health insurance is you can get the health care.

- CHIP is the Children's Health Insurance Program.

And it covers children who are right above the Medicaid level.

ABUKO ESTRADA- Studies have shown that kids in CHIP have fared just as well as kids in private insurance.

BRUCE LESLEY- CHIP is so unique because it is by definition pediatric focused.

Everything about it- the networks, the providers, the rules, all focused on children.

SPEAKER- <Laughs> Um... NARRATOR- He's not alone.

Most don't know.

The answer lies in my hometown of Pittsburgh.

It's a story that begins with nearly the end of the world's first billion dollar company.

<footfalls> <camera snapping> <footfalls> <camera snapping> <footfalls> <camera snapping> HUCK BEARD-I'm always interested in the history of places.

I find a beauty in the ruined decay of the buildings.

It's all natural light, I don't use any artificial light whatsoever.

<camera snapping> The places are beautiful just the way they are.

VIDEO HOST- What does it take to build a steel mill?

SINGER- Well, Pittsburgh town is a smokey old town, Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh town is a smokey Old Town, Pittsburgh.

Well, now Pittsburgh town is a smokey Old Town, solid steel from Kingsport down in Pittsburgh.

Lord God, Pittsburgh.

BILL FLANAGAN- It was such a powerful industrial center that in the early days of aviation in the 1920s and the 1930s, pilots flying between New York and Chicago would navigate by the red glow of the Monongahela Valley in Pittsburgh, because you could see it forever.

And if you were flying west to Chicago and it was on your left, you were on course, if it was on your right, you were heading for Nashville or somewhere down south.

COLLEEN GROPP- People called it the 13th grade because they go to high school and go straight down to the mill.

BILL COWHER- I was a boiler maker when I was in college, so I'd go back to Pittsburgh and I'd work for a couple months and make good money in the steel mills.

LEO GERARD- It's a huge source of pride.

They know how hard it is to make that steel.

It's hot.

It's dirty.

It's difficult, but it's rewarding.

<disco music> NARRATOR- In 1979, Pittsburgh was nicknamed the city of champions.

The Pirates and Steelers won it all in the same year.

There was great promise for the decade ahead, but it wouldn't come to be as the city's economic foundation collapsed.

BILL FLANAGAN- What happened through the 50s and the 60s was rising labor costs relative to what was happening elsewhere in the world.

In parallel, the industry in Asia and Europe had been devastated by the war.

They began to rebuild.

But they were not using 1930s technology like the United States was still operating.

They were building new mills using 1950s and 1960s technology.

It all came to head in the late 1970s, early 1980s and in the space of just a few years, the steel industry collapsed.

DARRELL BECKER- When the plants shut down, I was married, living in a house with a mortgage with two young children.

<clears throat> - When you lose your job and you can't get a job or you got family to worry about, it not only affects you emotionally but it attacks your dignity.

AUDREY FERENCZ- You people are not fighting, you aren't!

JIMBO FERENCZ- You keep saying fighting.

What do you mean fight?

How do you fight?

AUDREY FERENCZ- Not with your fists, but you got to talk for yourself.

You aren't doing anything, you just sit there and aren't doing nothing.

REV.

DR. GALLOWAY, JR- We assume life is going to be this because that's what it was for our father and for our grandfather and I'm going to work hard and this is going to be and all of the sudden- It's gone.

ALLEN KUKOVICH- For many folks who were in their 40s, 50s, and beyond, there wasn't a job market for them to move in to, especially one that would be equivalent.

LAID-OFF WORKER- I'm out on the street 19 years, 11 months And I'll probably never see the inside of a steel mill again.

BILL FLANAGAN- The region suffered a net loss of about 150,000 jobs.

CHARLIE LAVALLEE- We had some of the highest unemployment in the nation.

In the nation.

BILL FLANAGAN- When steel went down in the space of just a few years, it took the entire economy with it and not just jobs.

It took the entire social fabric of the community along as well.

PASTOR GROPP- The impact was devastating.

<silence> PASTOR GROPP- I visited numerous homes, but one in particular I brought some food for them.

<knocking> And there was nothing in their refrigerator but a half gallon of milk.

And she has three kids.

That's all that's in your refrigerator.

It's a half gallon of milk.

MOTHER- I know that's all I have.

She'll go through that, it'll be within about two days because you know she drinks milk.

PASTOR GROPP- No, I mean there's no food in your refrigerator.

PASTOR GROPP- It was just one out of rows and rows of houses that had nothing.

BILL FLANAGAN- I went down on the last day, when they shut down the mill to stand outside the gate as the last couple of 100 workers walked out with their lunch pails with just disbelief that something as big as a steel mill could just go away, that those jobs were never coming back.

HUCK BEARD- One time, I was at the McKeesport, connecting railroad roundhouse and the upper floor was an old locker room.

And the lockers were filled with personal items, combs, calendars, brushes.

I saw work boots just stacked in the floor.

People would be laid off regularly knowing that they would come back within a week or two sometimes a month.

Well, this last time, they just weren't called back.

<music ends> CHARLIE LAVALLEE- Back in those days, you couldn't get on Medicaid in Pennsylvania, if you made more than $6,800 as a family of four.

So slightly above half the poverty level.

In fact, nationally, Medicaid was covering less than half of the kids in poverty through its programs.

And I'm not saying that critically, I'm just pointing out that we had a problem that no one knew about until things exploded in western Pennsylvania with the collapse of the steel industry.

NARRATOR- This was years before COBRA, the health insurance continuation program.

Back then, if you lost your job, you lost your health insurance.

JOAN ALKER- For children, any gap in coverage is really problematic for families.

Any parent knows you're constantly at the doctor when your kids are little.

They need checkups.

They need their shots.

ABUKO ESTRADA- And assessments that can track issues in early development and behavioral health.

BRUCE LESLEY- If you make sure the kids are healthy, it improves their lives, but also reduces costs for society.

ROBERT CASEY, JR.- I think sometimes we don't... We don't have a full appreciation for the devastation that was wrought in those communities in those years and all the traumas that came with it.

I'm not sure we have a full-yet a full appreciation for it.

PASTOR GROPP- I've watched people die.

I've watched people starve.

I watched kids get beat.

<silence> PASTOR GROPP- Nobody was addressing it.

And so we and some churches got together and formed a coalition.

ACTIVIST- We're talking about the gospel also empowers us to be involved in criticism for the sake of love.

So the way you carry out healing for the unemployed.

BILL FLANAGAN- A lot of the efforts to organize really came out of the churches in the Mon Valley.

They were the glue that were holding those communities together.

PASTOR GROPP- We have 100,000 people in Pittsburgh without jobs.

We have US Steel shutting down plants up in Mon valley saying that they're not profitable.

ACTIVIST- How do we help those folks, you know, get their point of view across?

CHARLES HONEYWELL- It was called the denominational ministry strategy and it was made up of probably 30-40 churches.

ED BRADLEY- Suppose earlier today in church, your minister urged you to cause disturbances, abuse your neighbor, and try to get yourself arrested.

DARRELL BECKER- Non-violent, strictly symbolic.

You had people that were losing their homes and beating their wives and wanting to go out and shoot people.

And for me, this was a vehicle to try to focus energy.

DARRELL BECKER- The little guy is being pushed out in favor of the big guy.

BILL FLANAGAN- A lot of the anger at the time was directed at corporate Pittsburgh.

ACTIVIST- It would not look good for Pittsburgh's image to show a sudden rise in suicides due to unemployment caused by corporate decisions to close mills, destroy jobs, and build fancy buildings in downtown Pittsburgh, would it?

<street sounds> CHARLES HONEYWELL- Banks were financing the moving in the mills to the third world.

DARRELL BECKER- They were making 2% or 3% on their investments, but overseas they could make 9%, 10%, 12% on their investments.

So it became prudent for them to put profits before people.

CHARLES HONEYWELL- We went to 12 different branches, got deposit boxes, and then on one Friday afternoon, in the hot summer when we knew the air conditioning would be off for the weekend, we loaded our fishes in the bank boxes.

BILL FLANAGAN- They would walk in with a large bag of pennies to deposit in their account and then somehow you know as they're trying to make the deposit, the bag would open up and the pennies would spill all over the floor of the bank.

CHARLES HONEYWELL- Thousands of pennies are all over the floor.

And that finally escalated to a point where the police lost control and started hitting people with billy clubs.

ACTIVIST- The law protects the bank but won't protect the people.

CHARLES HONEYWELL- The media just was hooked, they could not stop covering.

It kept the focus going, that these guys need help and nobody's paying attention.

PASTOR GROPP- Our issues were justice and peace and fairness, care for the people.

And that's what Jesus always did.

DARRELL BECKER- The whole goal was to try to create jobs for people out of an area where there were no jobs and- struggling through this and, you know, Jesus going into the temple and chasing the money changers out.

And, you know, you wrestle with all this.

Is it right, what am I doing?

ACTIVIST- Dropping a dead skunk in front of Mellon bank is less violent than overturning somebody's table full of money.

CHARLES HONEYWELL- All these tactics were symbolic and non violent, and the violence came toward us.

<indiscernible conversations> PASTOR GROPP- Not one ounce of blood has been shed except our own.

<indiscernible conversations> LEO GERARD- We were probably arrested over 200 times.

<indiscernible conversations> DARRELL BECKER My wife could never-Ah, she could never see what was going on.

I mean, we were getting death threats on the phone and they were going to get my kids at the bus stop and think don't come to my church or we're going to do this.

And it was just, it was just she couldn't sort her way through that.

We ended up divorced.

somber music NARRATOR- Families broke apart.

Children suffered at home and in school.

CHARLIE LAVALLEE- Not only could their kids not play sports in school, but many of the families limited their kids play activities.

Like they didn't let their kids go to the playground because if they fell off the jungle gym and got hurt, they couldn't pay for that bill at the emergency room.

NARRATOR- Uninsured children stopped seeing doctors to the detriment of their health care.

DR. ALAN KHORT- Children's health care consists of basically three components.

One is preventive care, to keep them healthy.

One is acute care that when they get sick, help them heal.

And the third is for those kids who have chronic illnesses, how do you take care of them?

BRUCE LESLEY- Kids who are uninsured, babies are more likely to be sick.

Preschoolers are less likely to get immunized.

Adolescents are less likely to be treated for injuries or illnesses.

NARRATOR- With their children's health care in jeopardy, and no job prospects, the denominational ministry strategy considered new tactics.

ACTIVIST- What are you going to do?

That's what we have to decide tonight.

BILL FLANAGAN- The sense I had as a reporter was they felt they really were not being listened to.

They needed to find a new, more visible target so that people would really pay attention.

CHARLES HONEYWELL- That's when we started going to the churches where the steel executives attended.

COLLEEN GROPP- As a Christian, I felt as though I had to stand up for these people.

I also was a pastor's wife, mother of three preschoolers.

PASTOR GROPP- I don't think the place of worship is as important as the suffering of the people.

And if it's at the place of worship that we can get the message out, then it has to be done at the place of worship.

BILL FLANAGAN- It was a really challenging story to cover.

ACTIVIST- Members of Shadyside, come and see the evil that you have perpetrated, the scrap of the steel mills.

This graph represents the people who have died because you've sent your money overseas, because you shut our plants down.

BILL FLANAGAN- It was all the television stations, it was the newspapers, it was the radio stations.

ACTIVIST- This represents the bodies of the Mon Valley, the Ohio Valley, these mills that have been destroyed through the actions of people of this church.

We want to present a memorial before your altar until you deal with this sin.

BILL FLANAGAN- Pastor Solberg was one of the leaders of the movement from the Mon Valley.

PASTOR SOLBERG- Does the church in America hear the call to expose the underlying evil within this world?

BILL FLANAGAN- And his brother was David Soul, who at that time was one of the best known actors in America as part of Starsky and Hutch.

STARSKY- Hey Hutch.

Don't be a hero.

HUTCH Who, me?

BILL FLANAGAN- They came to the church and set up a gauntlet outside as families on Easter Sunday morning, their little girls dressed in their beautiful Easter dresses, had to run the gauntlet of the protestors and the signs and the anger that was being expressed to get into the church.

DARRELL BECKER- We were met and confronted by the police.

POLICEMAN- I'm going to ask you to leave immediately.

DARRELL BECKER- You know, I have a reputation for having kind of like a big mouth.

But this was one of the only times in my life where I never opened my mouth.

I just stood there quietly.

And he said you got 30 seconds to disperse, you got 20 seconds to disperse.

POLICEMAN- I'm asking you to disperse.

Please disperse.

Okay, you are under arrest.

These four right here.

Let's go.

You're under arrest.

Turn around.

DAVID SOUL- The focus is so clear in my mind that I was willing to risk being arrested.

Um...and I was.

DARRELL BECKER- So I went to jail with David Soul and we sat in the Allegheny County Jail eating bologna sandwiches on Easter Sunday.

DAVID SOUL- The question is now, I guess, what's next?

EMY BOAG- Many of us were aware of what had happened at Shadyside Presbyterian.

WILLIAM FOLLANSBEE, MD- We knew they were coming.

WILBERTA PICKETT- Some of the other churches in town kept them out, even had security guards to keep them out.

WILLIAM FOLLANSBEE, MD- I remember them in the parking lot and they were kind of grouping there.

BILL BOAG- We were told to be as welcoming as possible.

- In moments of crisis, you have to remember who you are.

And you have to remember whose you are.

When people come to church, they're welcome.

VERNE KOCH- To get to the church, we had to walk through a lineup of people standing on either side.

FAY POWELL- The first thing that hits you is the odor.

WILLIAM FOLLANSBEE, MD- They had some dead fish.

NARRATOR- I walked with my mother through the protestors.

We were offered dead fish.

The Washington Post wrote of an angry mob.

I don't recall them being angry, but they were intimidating.

I just wanted to get past them to the sanctuary of the sanctuary.

NANCY JANE EDELMAN- I was two or three rows back and I heard a commotion.

REV.

DR. GALLOWAY, JR.- They parade down the center aisle.

NANCY JANE EDELMAN- Very militantly.

WILBERTA PICKETT- And they filled the front rows up there.

FAY POWELL- And then turning around and facing the congregation.

We were honestly very frightened by it.

NARRATOR- I sat ten rows back.

I recognized the significance of the event, but I had no idea where it was going.

The only thing for certain was that my father, a senior pastor, was right in the middle of it.

REV.

DR. GALLOWAY, JR.- I got up to welcome all the people that were there, the 700 to 800 people, whatever the number was, especially those standing in front of us here.

We're just glad all of you are here and a part of this fellowship together as we worship God.

And I can never forget.

I'm looking at the backs of 35 or 40 guys staring menacingly at the congregation.

And this one guy was down over here.

I just remember he kind of looks up at me like 'Huh?'

<laughs nervously> You know?

It absolutely blew his mind that he could walk into a worshiping community of people from another part of town and be welcomed.

WILBERTA PICKETT- Reverend Galloway said to them 'We're glad you're here.

'We would like to know what you have to say to us'.

REV.

DR. GALLOWAY, JR.- He stepped up into the pulpit and...holding back his own tears, he apologized for disrupting the service but he wanted us to know that they're really hurting.

How do I take care of my kids?

How do I feed my family?

How do I keep my house?

You don't just hear that, and ignore it.

EVA HAVLICSEK- I mean, we all knew there were all these laid off workers, but we didn't internalize it at all until they were here and we could see them.

<somber music ends> <dramatic music begins> NARRATOR- I've never thought of Pittsburgh as a city as much as a grouping of towns.

A collection of ethnic enclaves sprinkled along the confluence of two rivers, forming a third.

BILL COWHER- There are 90 neighborhoods in the city of Pittsburgh and what's significant is people tend to identify by their neighborhood.

There's more bridges in Pittsburgh than there is in Venice, Italy.

And bridges have a way of connecting people.

There's bridges of people.

There's bridges of ethnic groups, for certain places that are different than others.

But we are all bridged together.

<music fades> NARRATOR- The borough of Fox Chapel and the towns of the Mon Valley are separated by two bridges and most of the city.

REVEREND WILLIAM EWART- They were there on Mother's Day in May of '84.

And so it's probably in late May or June.

She said, I think we ought to go out and meet them where they live.

somber music I would go through these towns, and there were men with eyes vacant, waiting for something to happen.

They looked at us very suspicious, because we were from the rich end of town.

But we weren't money people, we were just people.

The one thing they told us- 'when our kids get hurt or get sick, we have no health insurance'.

The kids are hurting out there.

The parents aren't asking for a handout.

They're asking for something to help their kids.

We didn't stay very long.

We didn't make promises.

We just listened.

But I could see in a glance, the need was great.

Something had to happen.

- Bridges between people are in disrepair.

The gap between rich and poor is widening.

Confrontations between labor and management are hostile.

Everywhere a person turns people seem ready to fight.

Home, school, community, work, and even church becomes a battle ground.

NARRATOR- My father's sermon faulted management executives and labor protestors.

It concluded.

REV.

DR. GALLOWAY, JR.- The question for us is what will determine how we react?

Will it be their shenanigans or our sense of mission?

Will it be their rudeness or our compassion?

The challenge for us has been to remain the church through it all.

NARRATOR- The Sermon infuriated the demonstrators.

They began distributing pamphlets that called my father a heretic, not worthy of the ministry.

Our family received phone calls at all hours.

Another demonstration was held at the church.

In the aftermath of the second protest, a follow up meeting was proposed.

REV.

DR. GALLOWAY, JR.- Can we sit down and talk?

We'd like to listen to you.

And they would say well, you're just trying to make yourselves look good and get publicity.

I said, my motivation is irrelevant.

Do you want to talk or not?

WILLIAM FOLLANSBEE, MD- I remember them coming and a distinct memory of a woman talking about her son, who was climbing a tree.

Her son fell out of the tree and broke his arm.

And they could not take him to an emergency room because they had no insurance.

REV.

DR. GALLOWAY, JR- And, all of a sudden, it's tough to talk about, this guy begins to cry.

You get some very big guy with tears rolling down his cheeks.

If that doesn't move you, you had better cash it in.

WILLIAM FOLLANSBEE, MD- And that simple one family, one child story really impacted everybody.

<birds chirping> <somber music> <ambient highway sounds> BILL FLANAGAN- One of the great victories of the American labor movement in the 1930s and the 1940s, was winning a company paid benefits, health care, pension, a variety of benefits that they were able to take advantage of.

In the 70s, and 80s, when the mills went away and those jobs went away, so did all the benefits.

<indiscernible conversations> - I felt that in my own household because we didn't have insurance for our children either.

So you know, you just hope nothing happens, you know, so... CHARLIE LAVALLEE- What you end up doing is you delay taking your child to the doctor.

You hope it gets better.

ALLEN KUKOVICH- Or a child might have been having trouble in class, maybe because they didn't have glasses and couldn't see the blackboard.

JOAN ALKER- A lot of children have asthma.

And that's a relatively controllable condition, but you've got to be able to get into the doctor, you've got to get your meds, your asthma inhaler.

If you miss a lot of school in third grade that's very predictive of not being able to graduate from high school.

And asthma is one of the leading causes of why children miss school in third grade.

CHARLIE LAVALLEE- We had kids losing their hearing because they didn't see the doctor on a timely basis.

CHRISTINE COLES- We were struggling to pay the rent, struggling to get groceries plus take care of him and his medical needs.

JUSTIN COLES- Even as a child, I understood the stress and toll it was taking on my parents to try to get me medical care and obviously staying up with me throughout the night.

CHRISTINE COLES- At that time, Justin was having some very serious issues with ear infections.

He was always in a lot of pain.

Our pediatrician told us it has to get done.

He's going to lose his hearing.

We couldn't afford to get the surgery that he needed.

<gasps> It was heart wrenching.

It was heart wrenching to see him go through that.

DR. ALAN KHORT, MD- People say well, that parent was just being neglectful.

But they were making hard decisions about what they could afford, and what they couldn't afford.

One case that I remember very vividly was a child who came in.

His parents had delayed bringing him in.

Because they couldn't afford it.

They didn't have insurance.

And the child came in with a complaint of constipation, I examined the child.

And unfortunately, I found a huge mass in his abdomen.

And that mass turned out to be a tumor on his kidney.

And we could not save him.

I was raised... to really believe in you help the whole community.

That was what your, you know, what your calling really was.

<somber music begins> REVEREND WILLIAM EWART- The vision was simply to help kids.

We didn't know how.

ROBERT CASEY, JR.- A lot of families were caught in between, as the steelworker families were, where their income was just too high to qualify for Medicaid, but also they weren't covered by an employer.

PASTOR GROPP- You're one family.

- Okay, PASTOR GROPP- There's hundreds right here in this project, just like...

They're all talking the same.

What can we do?

What's the best thing for us to do that gives you some hope?

WILLIAM FOLLANSBEE, MD- To be honest, as a physician when I heard discussions, I'm thinking people are a little naive.

Health insurance is a great big deal.

How can one church affect insurance coverage for children, that just seemed to me that, you know, this isn't realistic.

<bright music> REV.

DR. GALLOWAY, JR- We went to Blue Cross of Western Pennsylvania, and they said, "We can develop a product."

So we said I'd go to the people and our communities would get the customers and we'll pay the premiums.

BILL FLANAGAN- Gene Barone was running Blue Cross in those days.

EUGENE BARONE- Well, we had to do it fast and we got busy.

We rolled up our sleeves, along with other people in the community.

REV.

DR. GALLOWAY, JR- They did careful research, and they developed a product known as the Caring Program for Children.

WILLIAM FOLLANSBEE, MD- If our church and if Shadyside church could each enroll 100 families, they would go ahead and start the program.

- As Reverend Galloway said, mission happens when you can define a need and come up with a plan.

The first year we gave $156 per child and insured 200 Children.

It was matched then by Blue Cross Blue Shield.

CHARLIE LAVALLEE- The other donation was the administrative expense.

Like remember, this is an insurance program where there's people who answer the phones, there's people to process claims.

So to donate that we were able to say, 'every dollar you give goes directly to the kids.'

<music fades> BILL ISLER- One of the things that was really unique about this program is they did not do a special card for these families.

CHARLIE LAVALLEE- When they presented it, it alleviated their fear that they were going to be looked down on, that their child might be getting inferior care.

LEO GERARD- You can't have good health care if you have to bounce from one doctor to another.

DR. ALAN KHORT, MD- There's one critical piece of going to see the same doctor and that is the continuity of care.

That person knows you and can really make a better judgment.

The other thing is that trust relationship between the parents and the physician.

CHRISTINE COLES- He had his surgery, the tubes went in, the earache stopped, the infections went away, and he became healthier and healthier and healthier.

JUSTIN COLES- I got all the medical care I needed and I never suffered any permanent hearing damage.

We definitely owe that to the Caring Program.

CHRISTINE COLES- I know that it's saved lives.

I know that it has saved limbs, I know that it has brought good health to so many children.

JUSTINE COLES- I just wanted other kids to have that same experience.

I wanted the Caring Program to help as many kids as they could.

CHARLIE LAVALLEE- What was fantastic about the caring program is that all sectors of the community joined together.

NARRATOR- Churches, schools, foundations, even sports teams.

BILL COWHER- The Caring Program came along and, you know, you talk about family, you talk about kids, I'm all in.

HOGE-I'm Merril Hoge.

LAKE-And I'm Carnell Lake.

HOGE- We were proud to help the 1989 Pittsburgh Steelers live up to their potential.

LAKE- Today, we're helping kids live up to their potential.

BILL COWHER- What we tried to do with the Caring Program was giving back and making sure families were strong, making sure you were there for them when they needed it.

HOGE- We started seeing the passion for kids and schools and what it was doing, so then it became this groundswell.

JUSTIN COLES- Merril Hoge was my idol when I was a kid, I was a huge Steelers fan.

This was the photo- this is so cool- that was taken of us at Three Rivers Stadium.

HOGE- Now that's what it's all about anyway.

<laughs> JUDD GORDON- When these kids were working on whatever it was that would raise the funds, they realized that they would be helping somebody else in their school.

And in some cases, they were helping themselves, but nobody ever knew that.

ALLEN KUKOVICH- We found out that we had to really reach out even more.

We always had at least one mother say 'this is what this program meant to me'.

That had an impact.

There was a woman by the name of Maureen Ceidro, one of the first people I talked to.

MAUREEN CEIDRO- Their father was killed in a car accident.

Shortly after that, seven months later, our house burned down.

ALLEN KUKOVICH- Not only was her husband gone, her health care coverage was gone, her source of income was gone.

She got two part time jobs that didn't provide any health care.

JASON CEIDRO- When there's things that are uncertain, children feel it.

JA'NEAN REAY- My whole childhood as I knew it, shifted.

MAUREEN CEIDRO- It was around that time that I became aware of the Caring Program, which was hugely important to us.

I knew my children would be covered.

JA'NEAN REAY- There's something so invaluable about that sense of community, that people reaching out and caring for you when you're in a vulnerable position.

CHARLIE LAVALLEE- This wasn't something you were on for years.

Our average length of stay was only 19 months.

So if you think about it, it was a way families climbed up the rungs of the ladder.

MAUREEN CEIDRO- Once we came on the Caring Program, I was able to make some changes and go back to school myself, which was really helpful because I got my master's degree.

That was the real beginning of everything.

I have always said that there's two things that people really need in their lives.

One, is to be heard, and the other, is to be understood.

The Caring Program became a strong, dependable link in the chain of our lives.

When I saw how much it was a help for me, of course I wanted to help spread the word.

If I were to choose one word that could describe what the Caring Program has provided my children and myself, hope, is the word I would choose.

CHARLIE LAVALLEE- I heard from families, "This is too good to be true".

So that became a barrier.

It was too good to be true.

FRED ROGERS- Healthcare is on the minds of a lot of adults these days, especially parents who don't have insurance for their children.

BILL ISLER- He would sit and talk with these families and they would talk about the fact that they couldn't provide basic needs for their children.

They felt inadequate as parents.

It really touched Fred.

FRED ROGERS- The Caring Program can ensure adequate health care.

BILL ISLER- Fred was always interested in health care and children.

He saw health is a key component of the developing child.

FRED ROGERS- Please call to find out about the Caring Program.

CHARLIE LAVALLEE- When we would run those 30 second television spots with him, I mean, our phones would go crazy.

They'd be ringing off the hook.

<phone rings> BILL ISLER- He could get up and speak before legislators, before community leaders, saying our most valuable asset is our children.

FRED ROGERS- Everybody wants to take the best possible care of his or her children.

ALLEN KUKOVICH- Fred Rogers played an important role because of his credibility.

I get emotional with...with this.

FRED ROGERS- You're welcome.

ALLEN KUKOVICH- Thank you very much.

He was a great loss.

But his word was really helpful in getting people to accept the program.

NARRATOR- The Caring Program's reach went from hundreds of children to thousands throughout western Pennsylvania, and then the program spread to other states.

CHARLIE LAVALLEE- The Caring Program was a replicable model that was launched in 25 other states.

That brought attention to the issue; something could be done for uninsured kids.

And that led directly to the passing of the Pennsylvania Children's Health Insurance Program.

ROBERT CASEY, JR.- In a legislative sense, this started with State Senator Allen Kukovich.

SPEAKER- Gentleman, Mr. Kukovich desires recognition.

Keep in mind, Mr. Kukovich, you promised the House two minutes.

ALLEN KUKOVICH- Legislation, it really helps people.

It usually originates locally.

It originates in communities where there are problems.

When democracy works right, is when elected officials listen to those people and then take strategic action to accomplish it.

ALLEN KUKOVICH- I would please ask for a vote not for just one district or one region, but for this entire state, and for the people that matter the most for this state, those children whose parents are struggling to get by.

ROBERT CASEY, JR.- Allen was a long advocate for a program like this.

ALLEN KUKOVICH- I've talked to those mothers, to those children... whose lives have been.. inarguably changed by this program.

ALLEN KUKOVICH- I had these real life stories, that it was hard for anybody to oppose.

MAUREEN CEIDRO- In an age that's- that's often defined by struggle and chaos and all these awful things.

You know, here we have something that actually works and I'm living proof.

ALLEN KUKOVICH- I liked it because, number one, it showed this could work, and secondly...I couldn't win on this politically, if I was just creating a new public program, I had to show a public-private partnership.

One other thing that had caught my eye was this program that had begun by Fox Chapel Presbyterian Church, and they got voluntary contributions and they were providing health care to children in the western Pennsylvania area.

<upbeat music> ROBERT CASEY, JR.- There are some rose-colored glasses recollections about CHIP that everyone was for it in Harrisburg.

ALLEN KUKOVICH- One of the problems with trying to do anything for human services is the cost.

We didn't have the political support to say raise the state income tax.

So the approach was to try to raise and create new sales taxes.

One of the increases was a 13 cent increase on a pack of cigarettes.

We came up with a strategy to take that 13 cent increase and take two cents of that out and segregate it into a separate fund for children's health insurance.

CHARLIE LAVALLEE- You hear that and you think what is two cents?

Well, every penny generated 10 and a half million dollars that was dedicated, set aside, for Children's Health Insurance Program.

ALLEN KUKOVICH- So about 2am on August 5, 1991, legislature tired, bleary-eyed, voting on all these bills.

We had like two sentences in a tax bill that made that little change, didn't add anything more, just diverted two pennies on a pack of cigarettes.

CHARLIE LAVALLEE- Everything was different once CHIP was passed using the cigarette tax.

ROBERT CASEY, JR.- My father signed that into law at the end of 1992.

But he had this disease called amyloidosis.

It was incurable.

<indiscernible conversations> One of the manifestations of that disease was hi- his skin became almost tissue thin.

So even a minor cut could cause a lot of bleeding.

Just so happens that the day before he went to a Children's Health Insurance Program event, he got a gash on his leg.

ANNOUNCER- Governor Robert P. Casey.

ROBERT CASEY, JR.- And the bleeding wouldn't really stop all night.

So now he's at the Children's Health Insurance Program launch and there's an audience full of parents and children.

And it's a very, very happy occasion.

ROBERT CASEY, SR.- This is no bare bones program.

This program will provide children the care that they need.

ROBERT CASEY, JR.- The story is recounted in Reader's Digest, and they indicate the way he got through that speech with a shoe full of blood was to focus on the children.

To focus on what this program would mean for their lives.

NARRATOR- Governor Casey signed House Bill 20, which would become known as Pennsylvania CHIP, on December 2nd, 1992, five years before the federal program.

One discovery that helped strengthen the bill in Pennsylvania, and eventually the nation, related back to the Caring Program.

<music stops> It saved money.

DR. ALAN KHORT, MD- When a family doesn't have health insurance and they go to the emergency room, and the costs of the emergency room are much higher.

RACHEL BOGDAN-And when they can't afford it that leads to high uncompensated care costs.

JOAN ALKER- If you don't cover children, it doesn't mean their health care needs are going to go away.

It just means they're going to be addressed in a way that's more expensive for all of us.

CHARLIE LAVALLEE- A hospital provides care to someone who's uninsured.

That hospital passes that on to the health insurer, who then has to pass it on to the employer.

So all our premiums were going up.

What we were able to document, this was so exciting, that by getting these kids health care coverage, it interrupted the cycle of costhifting.

<indiscernible conversations> ALLEN KUKOVICH- The impartial study done by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Medicine on the 29 counties in western Pennsylvania regarding the prevention of cost-shift.

Are you aware of that?

POLITICIAN- No, Mr. Speaker.

ALLEN KUKOVICH- Somewhere between 8 and 10 million dollars has been saved in that western Pennsylvania early area alone by Blue Cross customers because of prevention of cost-shift.

ALLEN KUKOVICH- I pointed out the overall economic impact the more people you get healthcare for the more you save money, actually.

POLITICIAN-We have a very excellent hearing for you this morning.

BRUCE LESLEY- At the beginning of 1997, Congress started looking at various options to expand healthcare coverage for kids.

SENATOR JEFFORDS-This hearing will address a range of issues relating to children's health.

BRUCE LESLEY-A lot of it was built on looking at what the states had done and trying to say how can we take that national.

POLITICIAN- Pennsylvania is showing that the solutions are out there and they work.

JOAN ALKER-There were some in Congress that wanted just simply to extend Medicaid, but there were others who wanted to establish a block grant program.

POLITICIAN- My bill creates a five year pilot program funded with discretionary dollars.

JOAN ALKER-So the compromise was that states can choose.

They can either expand Medicaid.

Keep it simple, keep it to one program.

Or they can establish a separate state CHIP program.

NARRATOR-It was a bipartisan effort led by Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy and Republican Senator Orrin Hatch.

Hatch represented the state of Utah, but he was actually born and raised in Pittsburgh in the Mon Valley.

When the federal program he championed needed more money, Hatch found it the same way his native Pennsylvania had.

ORRIN HATCH- The bill is financed by a user fee or increase in the cigarette excise tax.

BRUCE LESLEY- The final package for enacting the Children's Health Insurance Program provided for 24 billion dollars for over 7 years.

ALLEN KUKOVICH- It made it a national program.

<applause> It was all modeled after what had happened back in the 80s with the Fox Chapel Presbyterian Church.

<bright music begins> CHIQUITA BROOKS-LASURE- Before CHIP was created in August of 1997, 15% of children were uninsured.

Today, less than 4% of children are uninsured.

NIKKI BAGBY- We found out about the CHIP program, not knowing that there was a program that could help our families who were working, who were no longer needing Medicaid.

SERRA HECK- I can't tell you how many times even for co-pay purposes, when you have multiple children, and you're going for sick visits and well visits, the cost of co-pays, CHIP actually will take care of those for you.

MEGAN PIPER- I think I have a different perspective because I have a child with such special needs and who has required so much medical attention.

I can't fathom what life would be like without it.

BRUCE LESLEY- It is probably the most important expansion of public policy for kids in the last 25 years.

JAKE TAPPER- The Children's Health Insurance Program or CHIP... JOHN CORNYN- The CHIP program... REPORTER- CHIP REPORTER- CHIP - When CHIP reauthorization needs to occur, there can be gaps in coverage.

ROBERT CASEY, JR.- CHIP expired on September 30th.

A total failure of the government.

NEWS PUNDIT- That leaves states who administer the program running out of funds and children with uncertain health insurance coverage, as the end of the year approaches.

MEGAN PIPER- A couple of years ago it was being discussed that CHIP may not be continued anymore.

JIMMY KIMMEL- Parents of children with cancer and diabetes and heart problems are about to get letters saying their coverage could be cut off next month.

Merry Christmas, right?

MEGAN PIPER- It was super stressful.

ROBERT CASEY, JR.- 9 million children and their healthcare and the security of their family is on the line.

NANETTE BARRAGN- With my bill, the CHIP permanency bill, becomes law, it would make sure that Children's Health Insurance Program is permanently funded.

I really care about CHIP and have devoted a lot of time to it because of my own experiences growing up.

Coming from an immigrant family, coming from a family that couldn't afford health insurance.

I put myself in those shoes and say, this is a program I would have wanted when I was a kid.

BRUCE LESLEY- If we could make CHIP permanent just like seniors have in Medicare, we could really focus on improving the coverage and getting to that point where all children have health insurance.

<music fades> CHARLIE LAVALLEE- The beauty of the Caring Program for children, it started, its roots were in listening to people in pain.

<dramatic music> CHIQUITA BROOKS-LASURE- It is so important to listen.

When you actually sit down and talk to families and hear about what's the most important to them, you sometimes change your frame.

PASTOR GROPP- What's the best thing for us to do that gives you some hope?

PASTOR GROPP- It's always a lonely walk, but that's part of the walk we all make.

I mean, that's the challenge we all have is whether or not we're going to stand for what we believe and know is right.

Or whether or not we're going to succumb to follow the masses.

REVEREND WILLIAM EWART- The kids are hurting out there.

Their parents aren't asking for a handout.

They're asking for something to help their kids.

EVA HAVLICSEK- These men came out here and really let us see what was going on.

And I feel like now in our nation, we probably need a similar kind of shake up.

BILL FLANAGAN- I think about those days 35 years ago in the context of the times in which we live today.

That we are so polarized and so unwilling to compromise and I think one of the lessons of what happened here in Pittsburgh, was that if you can find that common ground, if you can realize that your neighbors are not your enemy- they're just experiencing something very different- you can make progress and then you can achieve results and ultimately you can change the fortunes of those communities.

I think that's what happened in Pittsburgh in the 1980s.

And I think that's a lesson all of us could probably use today.