By Mike Shields
KHI News Service
TOPEKA, Oct. 3 After weeks of warning he would do it, President Bush today vetoed the bill reauthorizing the State Children”s Health Insurance Program.
Recent polls show that SCHIP is a widely popular program even among Republican and conservative voters. But the president in his
message to Congress
said the bill “would move health care in this country in the wrong direction” by encouraging those with private insurance to abandon it in favor of SCHIP.
The bill would have increased SCHIP funding by $35 billion over the next five years to provide coverage for about 10 million children. The program currently covers more than 6 million children nationally, including 35,000 in Kansas.
Democrats said the president”s veto was misguided.
“Rep. Boyda found today”s veto as incomprehensible as it was inevitable,” said Thomas Seay, press secretary for Kansas 2nd Dist. Congresswoman Nancy Boyda. “The president made up his mind to veto SCHIP even before he saw the final language and he stuck to his guns even after Congress sent him a good, bipartisan bill.”
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., who helped write the bill as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, responded with a speech on the Senate floor.
“I”m angry, because working families are angry,” he said of the veto.
“I”m disappointed with the president”s veto,” said Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat who was among governors from both parties who earlier urged Bush to sign the legislation. “Two-thirds of the Kansas delegation voted for this critical program. I”ll continue working with governors across the country to garner support and override the veto.”
The Senate passed the bill with enough votes to override the veto, including a yea from U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., usually a strong backer of administration policies. U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., did not vote.
But the House passed the measure 19 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to defy the veto.
Gary Brunk, president of Kansas Action for Children, which has backed and closely monitored the bill, predicted the program”s popularity would create heavy pressure on House members who were against the bill to now vote for it.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the House Democrats” political arm, has already begun an advertising campaign against eight Republicans considered politically vulnerable and possible vote-switchers, according to a Congressional Quarterly report.
“I think there”s a political consequence for this,” Brunk said, “because polls show SCHIP is hugely popular and every member of the House is up for election.”
Of the four-member
Kansas House delegation, only 1st Dist. Congressman Todd Tiahrt, a Wichita Republican, voted against the bill. State Sen. Donald Betts, a Wichita Democrat, is expected to formally announce this week that he will challenge Tiahrt for his seat in Congress.
But House Republican leaders said Wednesday they were certain they could keep enough votes to sustain the veto.
Brunk said he expected no changed votes from the Kansas delegation.
Congress earlier approved a continuing resolution so that money for the program didn”t run out after its Sept. 30 reauthorization deadline. That will fund
SCHIP through mid-November.
With a veto override as uncertain as a quick compromise with the White House, “we could be facing a series of continuing resolutions for a while,” to keep the program going at current funding levels, Brunk said.
Supporters of the bill disputed the president”s statements claiming the bill would create a new entitlement for middle-class families.
“He keeps on saying this is really going to be a program to cover middle-class kids,” Brunk said, “But we know from the Congressional Budget Office that the overwhelming majority of children getting health insurance (through SCHIP) are the children the president says he wants to focus on helping.”
Opponents of the bill have pointed to a CBO report that said about 2 million people who have private health insurance or could obtain it would instead join SCHIP, a phenomenon called “crowd-out.”
“There clearly would be some crowd-out,” Brunk said. “But I think the overwhelming majority of benefits would go to kids not covered by health insurance.”
The House is expected to attempt its override on Oct. 18, according to Boyda”s office.
-Mike Shields is a staff writer for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. He can be reached at
mshields@khi.org
or at 785-233-5443, ext. 123.