Dear Coalition Members:
Below is an article run by the Salt Lake Tribune this morning that relates
the latest news about the status of CHIP in Washington DC. As well, attached
is a short summary of the plans for extension of federal health insurance
programs.
#####
Children's Health Insurance Program gets reprieve, but long-term fate
postponed by Senate
<mailto:mcanham@????subject=Salt%20Lake%20Tribune:%20Children's%20Hea
lth%20Insurance%20Program%20gets%20reprieve,%20but%20long-term%20fate%20post
poned%20by%20Senate> By Matt Canham
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 12/19/2007 06:29:24 AM MST
WASHINGTON - Congress has set aside expansion plans for the Children's
Health Insurance Program in a deal that received Senate approval late
Tuesday.
Democrats wanted to expand the program to cover 10 million children of
the working poor, but President Bush twice vetoed those efforts. Democrats
and Republicans have agreed to continue covering the 6.6 million children
now enrolled in CHIP through March 2009, two months after Bush leaves the
White House.
The extension, teamed with a small increase in Medicare reimbursements
for doctors, will cost about $4.6 billion. The House is expected to pass the
measure today.
The deal is a victory for President Bush and House Republicans who have
claimed the expansion efforts were too costly, were funded by an unnecessary
tax increase and pushed the country toward government-funded health care.
But CHIP advocates, including Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Rep. Jim
Matheson, D-Utah, argue that the president's claims are simply not true.
The program "has been around for 10 years. It is a public-private
partnership," Matheson said. "Everybody knows what it is."
The federal government sends CHIP money to states, which set up programs
to enroll uninsured children who do not qualify for other government
programs.
Democrats and a group of Republicans wanted to expand the program, which
would have cost $35 billion over the next five years. They planned to pay
for it with an increased tax on tobacco. But the House came up about a dozen
votes shy of overriding a presidential veto.
The standoff led to Tuesday's action, which should maintain the benefits
at the levels states now provide. But that doesn't satisfy Hatch.
"The progress on CHIP today was an important step, but it's not the last
one we'll have to take," said Hatch, who vowed he will "not rest" until CHIP
is expanded.
Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, an opponent of CHIP, hopes Congress will set
this issue aside and spend the next two years working on broader health
reform such as competition in prices, more preventive medicine and expanded
health savings accounts.
"Getting such reforms enacted will require us to put politics aside, and
that is what we must do," he said.
mcanham@???
__________________________________________
Jerry Cochran
Health Policy Analyst
Voices for Utah Children
747 East South Temple, Suite 100
Salt Lake City, Utah 84102
801-364-1182 (T)
801-364-1186 (F)
jerry@???
