Eight states support suit vs U.S. over kids' health
05 12 07 - 00:00
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Eight states will back a lawsuit to stop the federal government from imposing new rules which they fear will force them to cut children from a health insurance plan, five governors said in a statement on Monday.
The State Children's Health Insurance Program, which relies heavily on federal funding, initially focused on poor children but governors increasingly have sought to add children from more moderate income families who say they cannot afford to buy private insurance.
"Hard-working families are caught in a no-win situation -- they earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, their employers do not offer coverage, and they cannot afford private coverage," said New Hampshire Democratic Governor John Lynch.
Under the new rules, children who have no health benefits would have to wait a year before joining the state plans. States would have to cover 95 percent of poverty-level families before enrolling more middle-income children, a requirement they say they cannot meet.
The states of Washington, New York, Maryland and Illinois will file the suit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, said a spokesman for Washington Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire.
Arizona, New Jersey, New Hampshire and California will likely file amicus briefs, the spokesman added.
New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, a former state attorney general, said: "The states are seeking a court ruling declaring those rules unlawful and prohibiting the federal government from applying the rules when reviewing individual plans."
The Democrat added that the Bush administration put out the rules without the required public comment period.
The lawsuit is not the only battle over the health plan. President George W. Bush has vowed to veto the reauthorization Congress enacted last week.
The Republican president says the bill, which will cost $35 billion over five years and be partly paid for with a 61-cent per pack cigarette tax hike, is a step toward nationalized healthcare.
A spokesman for the federal agency that runs the program, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services had no immediate comment on the lawsuit.
New Jersey will have to stop covering 10,000 children if the new rules go into force, Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine estimated.
On August 17, the federal government told states they would no longer be reimbursed for covering children whose family incomes top 250 percent of the federal poverty level.
But just last year, the Bush administration allowed New Jersey to cover children whose families earn up to 350 percent of the federal poverty level, Corzine noted.
The federal poverty level in 2007 for a family of four is set at a yearly income $20,650 for all of the states except Alaska and Hawaii.
(Additional reporting by Lisa Lambert in Washington))