US House of Representatives expands State Childrens' Health Insurance Plan; lame duck President threatens veto

From SFGate. The SCHIP program covers uninsured poor children. It is administered independently by each US state, which defines its own upper income limit.

President Bush's main objection to the program, that it is a step towards a government healthcare system, is incredible. This idiot would rather our children go uninsured and untreated.


(09-26) 04:00 PDT Washington --

The House on Tuesday approved an expansion of a health insurance program that would cover 10 million poor children at a cost of $35 billion, but fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto threatened by President Bush.

The vote was closely watched by the states, including California. The program, a federal-state partnership that now provides insurance for an estimated 6.6 million children, expires next week. If the program isn't extended, millions of children could - at least temporarily - lose their health insurance.

The battle over the children's health insurance has become a political showdown between the White House and the Democratic-led Congress. Bush warned that the expansion of the program - created a decade ago by the Republican-controlled Congress and Democratic President Bill Clinton - is a move toward a government-run health system. Democrats said Bush and his GOP allies want to deny health care to needy children.

"How does anyone of us decide, 'You will have health care and you will not,' in a country as great as ours when you are talking about children," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said Tuesday night in a speech on the House floor.

Before the vote, the White House issued a statement saying the bill would go "too far toward federalizing health care" and could push children out of private health insurance.

Some Republicans bucked the president on the vote, but not enough to overcome a veto. The House bill passed 265-159 with support from 45 Republicans. The Senate is expected to pass the measure later this week, and could approve it with a veto-proof margin.

If the House can't sustain a veto, lawmakers may have to craft a stopgap measure to keep the program going temporarily.

The bill approved by the House would raise the federal excise tax on cigarettes by 61 cents a pack to pay for the program, which now also covers 600,000 adults - mostly pregnant women. An expansion would allow states to enroll 4 million more children at a total cost of $35 billion over the next five years. The president had proposed a $5 billion increase.

In California, there are 1.1 million children who benefit from the program - 830,000 children enrolled in "Healthy Families" and 250,000 in Medi-Cal - as well as 8,000 pregnant mothers in the Access for Infants and Mothers program. The state received $791 million in federal money this year to pay for the coverage.

Lesley Cummings, who oversees the state's programs, said California has enough funding to continue to cover all children through mid-November if the program lapses. But a dozen other states warn that they will run out of money as soon as next week.

The fight in Washington "is creating a lot of turmoil," Cummings said. "I think people are suffering from amnesia. The origins of the program were bipartisan. It was passed by the (Republican) Newt Gingrich Congress."

Republicans, however, complained that Democrats were seeking to expand the program beyond the nation's poorest children and include children from middle-class families.

"It's an expansion of the welfare state," said Rep. David Dreier, R-San Dimas (Los Angeles County).

The bill was a product of an agreement between the House Democratic leadership and a bipartisan group in the Senate. It is backed by most medical groups - including the American Cancer Society, the American Hospital Association and the American Medical Association - who see it as a first step to covering the estimated 9 million U.S. children who are uninsured.

"Let's not make America's children wait any longer for the health care they need," said Edward Langston, chairman of the board of the American Medical Association.

Some House Republicans urged their colleagues and the president to reconsider their opposition. Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., said, "It works. It gets kids the insurance they need."

The White House said the Democratic legislation could allow families that earn as much as $83,000 a year to be eligible for insurance - a figure Democrats called inflated.

Bush said, "Instead of expanding (the program) beyond its original purpose, we should return it to its original focus, and that is helping poor children, those who are most in need."

States decide eligibility levels and benefits, subject to certain federal minimums, as they seek to cover poor children and the kids of low-income working class families in their states who lack health insurance. In California, a child in a family of three that earns up to $42,500 a year may be eligible.

Bush accused the Democrats last week of trying to score political points by pushing the expansion - knowing he would veto it - just days before the children's health insurance program is set to expire Sunday. Pelosi and Democrats seem convinced they have public opinion on their side.

"It's a defining issue in the next election," Rep. Chris van Hollen, D-Md., who leads the Democrats' House re-election efforts.

Bush also faces opposition from 30 governors, including Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who back the program and have complained that the administration has tightened the rules to limit the number of children enrolled.

"We cannot roll back the clock on a program that has helped to ensure children who need it the most have a healthy start in life," Schwarzenegger wrote in a letter to the administration earlier this month.

E-mail Zachary Coile at zcoile@sfchronicle.com.