If a good compromise leaves both parties unsatisfied, here's to the Senate Finance Committee.
Committee Chairmen Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) yesterday announced an expansion of the hotly debated State Children's Health Insurance Program that could leave a bad taste in mouths on both sides of the line.
House Democrats indicated in the congressional budget resolution that they would like to see as much as $50 billion allocated to SCHIP expansion, while Committee Republicans say $35 billion is the outer limit of their support. Many Congressional Republicans wouldn't even support that price tag.
The Committee's bipartisan bill includes raising tobacco taxes to fund the program's expansion. This tax hike of 39 cents per pack of cigarettes, which would bring the total cigarette tax to $1, would generate an estimated $35 billion over five years.
President Bush, who has been stiff in his opposition to major expansion of the program, said increasing government support for SCHIP would be a step towards a single-payer healthcare system. Bush yesterday sought to counter the Committee's proposal by reasserting his plan to issue tax deductions or credits to needy families in lieu of increasing funding.
"Congress has to make sure the successful Children's Health Insurance Program can help more low-income American kids," said Baucus in a response statement. "Turning to untested proposals, like the president's tax provisions, could put these children at risk."
House Democrats are soon expected to issue their own proposal for SCHIP expansion, and their plan is likely to raise the cost significantly and involve health insurers as additional sources of funding. Those insurers receiving federal subsidies for managed Medicare Advantage plans could be the first to be tapped under such a proposal, Dow Jones reported. Medicare Advantage subsidies amount to $60 billion over five years.
The committee has not released official estimates on cost or timelines, but Baucus is expected to formally introduce the bill Friday. He will present the bill to the committee on Tuesday.