Members of the Senate followed the House in passing bipartisan $35 billion legislation to reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program at the end of last week. With President Bush planning to veto the bill and Congressional Democrats plotting a veto override, what's next for 10 million uninsured children?
Central to recent SCHIP talks are arguments surrounding whether that number of children - the estimated amount of children the expanded program would cover in the next five years - is made up of only poor children or is a mix that includes middle- and upper-middle-class children who already have private insurance.
"Congress made a decision to expand eligibility up to $80,000 (family income). That's not the intent of the program," President Bush said last week. "I believe this is a step towards federalization of healthcare... That's why I'm going to veto the bill."
Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt noted that 90 percent of children in families with incomes of as much as 400 percent of the poverty line already have private insurance.
However, the Senate Finance Committee noted that the legislation would not aim to expand eligibility on the federal level. New York is the only state that has announced plans to expand eligibility to as much as $80,000, or 400 percent of the federal poverty line.
Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) criticized the administration's proposal to allocate merely $5 billion to SCHIP following a presidential veto.
"According to (The Congressional Budget Office), over a million children would lose coverage if we simply reauthorized SCHIP at the assumed baseline," he said in a floor statement last week. "Who among us would go home and tell your constituents you voted to reauthorize the SCHIP program, but over a million kids lost coverage?"
Presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul, MD, (R-Texas) said, "This week, Congress is again grasping for more control over the health of American children... Parents who think federally subsidized healthcare might be a good idea should be careful what they wish for."
"We think the President has 10 million reasons to sign the CHIP bill: the 10 million children who will benefit," said Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).