A New Offer on Insurance for Kids
05 02 08 - 10:54
Tuesday, February 5, 2008; Page A13
President Bush has made Congress a counteroffer on expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program, known as SCHIP. His budget would increase spending on the popular program, which offers subsidized health insurance to children of the working poor, by nearly $20 billion over the next five years.
That's more than the $5 billion increase Bush offered last year in a proposal that would have boosted total funding to $30 billion over five years. But it is well under the $35 billion expansion approved by Congress and vetoed twice by the president, which would have increased total funding to $60 billion.
The new offer comes with a string attached: It would generally limit eligibility to children in families that earn no more than 2 1/2 times the poverty level. The vetoed bills would have allowed states to set the ceiling as high as three times the poverty level.
"SCHIP should be focused on low-income children first," Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said.
Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said the proposal shows "that the White House was low-balling Congress last year on the amount needed to take care of our kids."
Bush's budget also includes a 5.7 percent increase for the Food and Drug Administration, to $2.4 billion, and a $42.2 million increase to strengthen food safety efforts. Overall, the health budget would decrease by 2.4 percent, to $68.5 billion.
-- Christopher Lee