SCHIP’S PRESIDENTIAL HELP

President Bush helped advance the debate over a children’s health insurance bill this summer by refusing to engage in support of either the House or Senate versions, thereby driving Congress to a solid compromise on expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Now he has helped out again by so badly characterizing what the bill would do that wavering members of Congress can be assured that the compromise expansion is the right move.

SCHIP, as the program is known, provides federal subsidies, matched with state dollars, to offer health care coverage to children whose parents earn too much to qualify for Medicaid. The program covers about 4 million children a month. The question in Congress is to what extent SCHIP should be expanded and how it should be funded. The compromise answer from negotiators ended up close to the version produced by the Senate: an additional $35 billion to a total of $60 billion over five years, paid for with a tax increase on tobacco sales.

The program is scheduled to expire Sept. 30 unless reauthorized. President Bush has promised to veto the bill if it arrives with the expansion as currently proposed. Instead, the president has for months insisted on increasing the program by $5 billion, a figure that would not cover inflation, and his administration has suggested new rules limiting enrollment. The president’s argument, made again this week, is that “Democratic leaders in Congress want to put more power in the hands of government by expanding federal health care programs.” He, on the other hand, believes “the best approach is to put more power in the hands of individuals by empowering people and their doctors to make health care decisions that are right for them.”

A very nice thought, but the president misses the detail that people with lower incomes and no health coverage do not have doctors to consult because they can’t afford them. And SCHIP doesn’t stand between patients and doctors -it provides coverage to put them together. This intentional misunderstanding demonstrates better than anything else that the president is not serious about his argument. He merely wants to pay less for a program without regard for the results.

Among those “Democrats” who support an expanded SCHIP are Maine Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe (along with the state’s Reps. Mike Michaud and Tom Allen) and 16 other Senate Republicans. As much as he may wish it, this is not a party fight. And SCHIP expansion has broad bipartisan support.

The holdup is primarily in the White House, which apparently will say anything to try to restrict this valuable service.