WASHINGTON — The House easily approved an expansion of government health coverage for low-income children Wednesday, a top priority for President-elect Barack Obama and the first in a series of stalled measures expected to move quickly through the Democratic Congress as President George W. Bush leaves office.
Obama hailed the 289-139 vote and nudged the Senate to act with the “same sense of urgency so that it can be one of the first measures I sign into law when I am president.”
The president-elect vowed as a candidate to provide health coverage to every child, and the expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program is a major down payment toward meeting that goal.
“In this moment of crisis, ensuring that every child in America has access to affordable health care is not just good economic policy, but a moral obligation we hold as parents and citizens,” Obama said.
The House legislation would cost nearly $33 billion over 4 1/2 years and would be funded in part by a cigarette tax increase of 61 cents to $1 per pack. Bush vetoed two similar bills in 2007, objecting to the tax increase and the expansion of government health care. The Senate Finance Committee will take up a similar measure today, with floor action expected to begin next week.
Last Friday, the House passed two bills aimed at closing the pay gap between men and women, both opposed by Bush and supported strongly by Obama, and both long stuck in the Senate owing to formidable Republican opposition. With their new, much-larger margin of at least 58 votes, Senate Democratic leaders hope to approve the equal-pay measures in the coming weeks.
Other GOP-blocked initiatives that could move quickly would lift restrictions on federal stem-cell research, a step Obama could take administratively after his inauguration, and the granting of full congressional voting rights to the District of Columbia’s delegate.
The House bill would provide health insurance to an additional 4.1 million children and parents, including legal immigrant children and pregnant women, who currently must wait five years before becoming eligible for the program. A total of 11 million individuals could now receive coverage.
