By Jim McLean
KHI News Service
Elyssia Wright. left, casts an attentive glance toward Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as the governor responds to reporters’ questions during a press conference at Lowman Hills Elementary School in Topeka. Joining Wright are fellow fifth graders Argenis Arteaga, center, and Nicholas Garrett. Sebelius used the gathering to rally support for reauthorizing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. (Dave Ranney/KHI)
TOPEKA, Sept. 7
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius on Friday urged Congress to reach a compromise on legislation reauthorizing the State Children”s Health Insurance Program and called on President Bush to reconsider his veto threat.
Sebelius, flanked by a group of children”s advocates and 5th graders at Topeka”s Lowman Hill Elementary School, said “the clock is ticking” on the SCHIP program, which is due to expire Sept. 30 if a reauthorization bill isn”t passed and signed into law.
Nationally, SCHIP provides health coverage to approximately 6.6 million children. About 35,000 Kansas children are covered by the program in any given month. It is designed for children in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to afford private health insurance.
“What we don”t want to have happen is to have Congress walk away from this issue,” Sebelius said. “That”s just not acceptable. So, we are calling on Congress to step up and resolve this issue and get a consensus bill and the president to hopefully back away from his veto promise.”
Both the House and Senate passed SCHIP reauthorization bills earlier this summer. But they have made no public progress in resolving the differences between the two measures, which are considerable. For starters, the House”s $50 billion bill is significantly more expensive than the Senate bill, which would increase SCHIP funding by $35 billion over five years. The House bill also would reduce some Medicare reimbursement rates and use the savings to fund the proposed expansion of SCHIP.
The House bill would extend coverage to an estimated 5 million additional children; the Senate bill, 3.2 million.
Both bills would raise the federal excise tax on a pack of cigarettes
which is now 39 cents
to pay for expanding the program. The Senate measure raises it by 61 cents; the House bill, 45 cents.
U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., was one of several Republicans who ignored President Bush”s veto threat and voted for the Senate SCHIP bill. But he has said the House bill would extend taxpayer-subsidized coverage to children in families that could afford private insurance.
U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., whose 1st District covers the western two-thirds of the state, voted against the House bill but said he probably could support something closer to the Senate version.
“We can renew and expand SCHIP if we can get the politics
the Republican-Democrat, House-Senate, president-Congress politics
out of the debate,” Moran said.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Kan., whose 2nd District includes Topeka, voted for the House bill but has indicated that she also is open to compromise.
“Both the House and Senate versions of the SCHIP bill would help millions of uninsured children afford health care and neither would increase the budget deficit by a penny,” she said.
President Bush has said he will veto any bill that exceeds his proposed $5 billion increase in SCHIP spending, fearing that any more would entice some families to drop private insurance in favor of government-subsidized coverage.
Sebelius and others say the president”s proposal isn”t enough to cover children already enrolled in the program.
“It takes $15 billion to preserve the status quo,” she said. “He”s proposed a third of that in the budget.”
-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.