By Jim McLean
KHI News Service
TOPEKA, April
2
The Bush administration remains opposed to expanding the State Children”s Health Insurance Program despite bi-partisan support for increased funding.
Dennis G. Smith, the federal official in charge of Medicaid and SCHIP, said in a published report in the New York Times over the weekend that the administration would strenuously resist attempts to increase funding for the children”s insurance program to finance expanded coverage.
Smith said in many states SCHIP had been expanded beyond its original purpose, which was to cover low-income children in families earning no more than twice the
federal poverty level
, $34,344 for a family of three. He said the administration”s proposal to reduce federal funds for the approximately 17 states that have increased SCHIP eligibility above that level is designed to prevent families from substituting taxpayer subsidized coverage for private insurance.
“At higher income levels, families are more likely to have private health insurance,” Smith said in the Times article published April 1. “If they become eligible for the Children”s Health Insurance Program, you are more likely to be substituting public for private coverage. You could add billions of dollars to the program without insuring many new kids.”
Republicans in the Kansas Legislature have raised similar objections to Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius” proposed expansion of SCHIP. The governor proposed increasing the eligibility limit to three times the poverty level. But legislators, so far, have declined to fund the proposal.
At the federal level, several members of the Kansas congressional delegation
Republicans and Democrats
have said President Bush”s SCHIP funding proposal is inadequate. It would reauthorize the program
which costs approximately $5 billion a year
and provide an additional $4.8 billion over five years.
Critics, including U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., say such a small increase wouldn”t allow states to continue serving children currently enrolled in the program.
“We”ll fund SCHIP and we”ll fund it at a greater level than the president has requested,” Roberts said during a March interview with Kansas Public Radio. “Will it be enough for everybody? No. Will it be better? Yes.”
Second District Rep. Nancy Boyda, a Democrat, favors a larger increase in SCHIP funding as long as it is offset by reductions in other areas of the budget.
“We have to look at fixing the entire health care system. But everyone agrees that we have to take care of our children in the meantime,” Boyda said in a recent interview with the KHI News Service.
Some Democrats are seeking to increase SCHIP funding by $50 billion. Bipartisan legislation expected to be introduced later this month by Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, will propose a $25 billion increase SCHIP funding over five years, according to CQ HealthBeat.
Among other things, the Rockefeller-Snowe proposal is expected to include funds for state outreach efforts to cover an estimated six million children who quality for SCHIP, but not enrolled in the program. In Kansas, approximately 71 percent of uninsured children qualify for either Medicaid or SCHIP, but are not enrolled in either.
-Jim McLean is a staff writer for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. He can be reached at
jmclean@khi.org
or at 785-233-5443, ext. 110.