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SCHIP Stories: Law? What's That Got To Do With Bush and McCain?
by DemFromCT Sat Apr 19, 2008
The State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) was passed in 1997 by bipartisan agreement.
Why SCHIP?
SCHIP was enacted at a time when the number and rate of uninsured children were growing rapidly, especially among those just above the poverty threshold— too poor to purchase private coverage but not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid. Recognition of the large number of uninsured children eligible for Medicaid but not enrolled was also mounting. When Congress launched SCHIP as part of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, it gave states considerable flexibility in designing programs to expand coverage for uninsured low-income children. They could expand coverage through Medicaid (M-SCHIP), create a separate child health program (S-SCHIP), or combine the two approaches. SCHIP represented the largest expansion of publicly sponsored health insurance coverage since Medicare and Medicaid were created in the mid-1960s.1
It's been a remarkably successful program. Naturally, its very success made it a target for the Bush administration.
SCHIP helps poor kids; SCHIP expansion helps millions more
The reason to oppose SCHIP expansion was ideological and had more to do with the structure of how the government would function than any reason suggested by Republicans
The House Republicans, being a regional party, used the higher cost of living in the North to hide the lower benefits available in the South2
After a contentious battle, a Presidential veto was barely sustained by House Republicans despite heavy bipartisan lobbying.
Bush couldn't eliminate SCHIP, and could barely stave off expanding the program (blocking expansion is bad policy in a shaky economy), so states like NY with high costs of living and compassion about its citizens tried to expand the program locally. The Bush administration said no, enacting executive regulations to block adding kids at the state level.
The measure does not address an SCHIP policy directive announced in August by CMS that states must enroll 95% of children in families with incomes up to 250% of the federal poverty level before expanding eligibility, The Hill reports. Acting CMS Administrator Kerry Weems said that the Bush administration would not require states to disenroll children from the program despite the requirement. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair John Dingell (D-Mich.) said that Weems' statement contradicts the policy, adding, "Perhaps CMS officials are reading their directive differently than the rest of us."...
[Rahm] Emanuel said SCHIP will be addressed this summer, when the new rules take effect. He said, "What we can't resolve, the American people will resolve in November," adding, "This will be the first thing a Democratic president will get done. We don't need March '09" (Johnson, CongressDaily, 12/19).3
And that's where it stands, with a summer fight expected, and fall campaigning on the issue a certainty (and Republicans up and down the ticket are expected to pay a price for vetoing the popular program's expansion). John McCain stood, as always, with George W. Bush on policy.
McCain: Bush right to veto kids health insurance expansion
So, with that background, we find this morning that yet again the Rule of Law is just another casualty of Bush ideology.
The Bush administration violated federal law last year when it restricted states’ ability to provide health insurance to children of middle-income families, and its new policy is therefore unenforceable, lawyers from the Government Accountability Office said Friday.
The ruling strengthens the hand of at least 22 states, including New York and New Jersey, that already provide such coverage or want to do so. And it significantly reduces the chance that the new policy can be put into effect before President Bush leaves office in nine months.
At issue is the future of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, financed jointly by the federal government and the states. Congress last year twice passed bills to expand the popular program, and Mr. Bush vetoed both.
State officials of both parties say the policy, set forth in a letter to state health officials on Aug. 17, has stymied their efforts to cover more children at a time when the number of uninsured is rising and more families are experiencing economic hardship.
Not only is this unconscionable, Bush policy on SCHIP has been fully supported by Bush clone John McSame. John McCain is no maverick. He's a Bush third term disaster in waiting. On what Bush policy, from torture to health care to Iraq does he offer change?
The political press, with its miserable failure to cover issues in this campaign, needs to stop bringing him coffee and start covering the issues. Start asking him where he stands in SCHIP, and why. Does he support the Rule of Law or does he not? This is what Americans care about, not whether he wears a lapel pin.
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