Two senators are trying to overcome a policy implemented last year to limit the number of people enrolled in the State Children's Health Insurance Program.
Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Max Baucus (D-Montana) introduced a resolution late last week to nullify a Department of Health and Human Services policy that would impose tighter income limits on those who want to qualify for the joint federal-state program.
The senators said 41 of their senate colleagues have sponsored the joint resolution of disapproval, which seeks to nullify the Aug. 17, 2007 directive from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
The CMS directive forces states to enroll 95 percent of children in families with incomes of as much as 200 percent of the federal poverty level first, before the states can expand coverage to children in families with incomes greater than 250 percent of the poverty level.
"What's at stake here is healthcare coverage for millions of children," said a letter from the sponsoring senators.
The senators cited a report by the Government Accountability Office that the Bush administration erred by using administrative process to set income levels to qualify participants for the SCHIP program.
"The Bush administration wasn't playing by the rules when they issued the August 17 directive," the letter said. "They issued an illegal regulation and violated the spirit of the Children's Health Insurance Program."
"If we don't stop this latest attack on SCHIP, more and more states will be forced to turn needy families away, and our children will suffer," Rockefeller said.
"Congress should disapprove this rule, not only because it goes too far in blocking healthcare to American children but also because it was issued in a way that is inconsistent with law," Baucus added.
The GAO report concluded that the directive was in fact a rule for purposes of the Congressional Review Act and, therefore, in violation of the statutory requirements for Congressional notice and review. The Bush administration then reissued the guidance, but still failed to notify Congress and the Comptroller General, as they're required to do under the Congressional Review Act, the senators said.
Without intervening Congressional action, the directive will go into effect next month.