Snowe, Kennedy back health insurance bill

WASHINGTON – After playing a central role in the Senate’s passage of the patients’ bill of rights, Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, again has joined the chamber’s most prominent liberal Democrat on another health care bill, which would expand a federally funded health insurance program for children to cover low-income parents.

Snowe introduced a bill with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., Wednesday that would target the parents of children insured under the state Children’s Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP, and could help 13 million Americans now without insurance obtain health coverage. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is also a co-sponsor of the legislation.

“This is a logical build-on to that successful program,” Snowe said.

In 1997, Congress created CHIP, a $42 billion matching program that helps states provide health insurance for children whose parents earn too much for Medicaid but who cannot afford private insurance.

More than 10,000 children in Maine are in the state’s CHIP program, called Cub Care, but 18,000 children remain uninsured, despite the fact that the state’s program is one of the most extensive and generous in the country.

In March, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy G. Thompson approved a state proposal to raise the income eligibility for Cub Care from 185 percent of the federal poverty level to 200 percent (the federal poverty level for 2001 is $17,650 for a family of four). The state expected to enroll more than 500 new children in Cub Care with the expansion.

“Cub Care has been a tremendous success,” Collins said. “Our bipartisan legislation will build on that success by helping states to expand children’s health insurance programs and Medicaid to include parents of children already enrolled and to accelerate enrollment of uninsured children eligible for these programs.”

The proposed expanded CHIP program, named “FamilyCare,” would match state funds that are used to extend coverage to parents, and also reward states that already have expanded coverage, such as Maine.

“With so much at stake, we ought to build on what works, and CHIP fills that bill,” Snowe said. “FamilyCare narrows the coverage gap among children eligible for CHIP, while at the same time covering the parents of these low-income children.”

Earlier this year, Congress set aside $28 billion over three years to reduce the number of people without health insurance, but did not specify how the funds should be spent. President Bush and many Republicans prefer other ways to help the uninsured buy coverage, such as providing tax incentives for employers to provide coverage and letting workers establish tax-free medical savings accounts.

Supporters of the bill foresee smooth sailing, at least until the bill reaches the House of Representatives. All of the Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee support the measure, as well as Snowe, guaranteeing its passage there. Kennedy said he hopes to have the bill approved by that committee before the Senate’s August recess.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., is also a co-sponsor of the measure. Kennedy said six Republicans in the Senate voted for a similar measure last year.

Of the 42 million Americans nationwide without health insurance, more than 70 percent come from families with at least one full-time worker, according to the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

Snowe, Kennedy, and other supporters of the bill acknowledge that expanding CHIP is only one part of an effort to reduce the ranks of the uninsured.

“We know one size doesn’t fit all,” Snowe said. “It’s going to take multiple approaches to insure Americans.”

“To do everything we want to do takes more than we have,” Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said. “But this will begin the process of helping people get health insurance. When you make that sort of progress, it’s very hard to stop. People start to demand it.”

“When you talk about expanding the CHIP program to cover parents, it is so logical that it defies explanation as to how this could not pass,” Rockefeller said.

Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., wearing a tie designed with cartoon images of doctors’ offices, introduced a companion measure in the House.

“If you want to get the kids in the program, the only way to do it is to make sure the parents are motivated,” Dingell said.