With millions of uninsured children in this country, President Bush should drop his threat to veto legislation that would expand health coverage to more low-income children.
Healthy children, after all, have a better shot at a successful life, and better access to health care at a young age can stave off much costlier medical problems later.
A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers understands this, and has been working on renewing, and expanding, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP. It’s been deemed by many to be the most important health legislation before Congress this year.
But the president is threatening to upend the legislation, saying that rather than expanding the role of government in health care, he’d like to “encourage the development of an individual market” that could cover more children.
First, we wish he would have been so thoughtful about expanding government before he ran up record deficits and pushed his Medicare prescription drug boondoggle. Secondly, while we understand his sentiment, with Democrats controlling Congress, it’s unlikely to happen.
So let’s talk about how to expand health coverage to more children. Failing to take care of their health needs as we wait for some private industry rescue is pound foolish.
The current program covers 6 million uninsured children whose working parents earn too much to be eligible for Medicaid but not enough to afford private health insurance. The bipartisan bill that passed the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday would renew the current program and cover an additional 3.3 million children at a cost of $35 billion, bringing total funding to about $60 billion over five years.
“SCHIP has become a critical resource to us in Colorado and nationwide, providing health care coverage to children who would otherwise go uninsured,” said Sen. Ken Salazar, a member of the finance committee. He called it a “moral and economic obligation” to invest in our children’s health care.
To pay for the expanded program, the bill proposes to raise the federal excise tax on a pack of cigarettes 61 cents, to $1. Not only might that encourage fewer people to smoke, thus improving their health, it will allow for healthier children. Moreover, expanding health coverage “reduces the amount of uncompensated care that doctors and hospitals would have to provide,” said Lorez Meinhold, program officer at the Colorado Health Foundation. Uninsured children often end up in costly emergency rooms with ear aches and common colds that could have been taken care of in a doctor’s office if they had insurance.
In Colorado, 56,812 children were enrolled in the program as of June, out of 97,000 eligible, according to Bill Heller, head of the state’s program called CHP+. And 1,229 low-income pregnant women 19 years and over were enrolled in the prenatal part of the program, which is critical to giving babies a healthy start.
Currently, states have the flexibility to set eligibility standards. In Colorado, a family of four can earn up to $41,304. Some states are talking about raising eligibility levels to 400 percent above poverty, enabling the children of a family earning $80,000 to be eligible. That’s a move we oppose.
The current SCHIP program comes up for renewal on Sept. 30. Bush supports renewing the current program – with an extra $5 billion – but Ben Davis, spokesman for the SCHIP coalition in Colorado, said it would leave the state short $56 million by 2011 due to rapidly rising health care costs.
We’re glad Bush is finally worrying about government spending, but this is about taking care of our future, not bloated bureaucracies.
Details of CHP+
CHP+ is health insurance for Colorado children and pregnant women. It is funded with state and federal dollars and serves families that earn up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level.
Children 18 and under who do not have Medicaid or any other health insurance are eligible.
The cost depends on a family’s size and income. Some families pay nothing. Others pay $25 to enroll one child or $35 to enroll two or more.
Co-payments of $2 or $5 for health and dental services may also be required.
Families can download an application at or call 800-359-1991.
