The House on Wednesday voted 289-139 to approve a bill (HR 2) renewing and expanding SCHIP to about four million additional children, the New York Times reports (Pear, New York Times, 1/15).
Under the expansion, similar to one that was vetoed by President Bush in 2007, children in families with incomes of up to three times the federal poverty level would qualify for the program. Supporters of the bill say it will raise the number of children covered by SCHIP from around seven million to around 11 million (Armstrong [1], CQ Today, 1/14). The measure extends the program by four-and-one-half years at a cost of $32.3 billion, on top of the current $25 billion cost of the program (New York Times, 1/15). SCHIP's current authorization expires March 31 (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 1/14). The bill would almost be completely funded by a 61-cent-per-pack increase in the federal cigarette tax (New York Times, 1/15).
The bill also includes a provision that would allow states to waive the federally mandated five-year waiting period for documented immigrants seeking to receive public benefits in the case of children and pregnant women (Levey, Los Angeles Times, 1/15). Supporters of the provision say about 400,000 to 600,000 children would be added to SCHIP if all states choose to cover children of documented immigrants and pregnant documented immigrants (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 1/14).
GOP Objections
Republicans raised several objections to the bill, including that tobacco revenues were not increasing quickly enough to offset the cost of the bill, that some children who were already privately covered would be included and that the bill does not require states to ensure that the poorest children are covered first, according to the New York Times (New York Times, 1/15). House Republicans issued a policy statement Wednesday detailing their objections to the expansion bill. The statement said, "Increasing the amount of federal tax dollars flowing to states that consciously choose to provide benefits to children of these higher-income families before enrolling already eligible poor and low income children is the wrong policy and sends the wrong signal" (Murray/Connolly, Washington Post, 1/15).
House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Dave Camp (R-Mich.) said, "I think the real concern is eligibility is being increased without making sure those children who really qualify for SCHIP are covered, and, secondly, really the oversight of the program is lacking because they're really not requiring the kind of verification that needs to be done" (Edney, CongressDaily, 1/14).
Democrats' Comments