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by Matthew Hay Brown
It may have gone down in a failed veto override last week. But it looks as if the plan to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program is coming back sooner rather than later---and in a form that will be familiar to all who have followed the debate.
House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer said today that Democrats could bring the bill back to the floor as early as this week. And while Republican opponents have called for compromise on who would be covered and how much would it would cost, Hoyer suggested that the main difference this time would be better salesmanship.
"Some of the comments that have been made by members of the other side about their concerns ... we are prepared to try to address some of those concerns," Hoyer said today during his weekly pen-and-pad session with the Capitol press corps. "We don't think they were concerns that were legitimate. And we are prepared to address them to ensure the fact that everybody understands what the bill means."
SCHIP currently covers 6 million children and about 600,000 adults from moderate-income families not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid. Bipartisan majorities in both the House and Senate voted last month to expand coverage to 10 million at a cost of an additional $35 billion over five years.
Some conservatives have described the expansion plan as a step toward socialized medicine. President Bush vetoed the measure, and the House fell 13 votes short last week of the two-thirds majority needed to override (the Senate passed the bill by a veto-proof margin).
Republican opponents of the bill have called for negotiations. Bush initially proposed a $5 billion increase, and has said he would consider adding more - but nowhere near the $35 billion supporters want.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-Texas) complained today that the calls were going unanswered.
"If there is any issue in which Congress can declare a victory this year, it would be SCHIP," said Hutchinson, one of 17 Senate Republicans who voted for the initial bill. "I think the victory is at hand. And yet, we find that there is no effort on the part of the Democratic leadership to work with the president to see where they can come to common ground and move something through."
Congressional Democrats say the bill already represents a compromise. Hoyer said today that coverage for 10 million children remained "our litmus test of whether this is a bill we can support" - and added that "you can't do 10 million without" the $35 billion price tag.
Asked what part of the bill was left up for negotiation, Hoyer said: "I am talking to people. I don't feel I am in a negotiation."
Comments
Can't wait for the Sultan of Streamwood, the Baron of Bloviation, and other dead-heads to repeat Bush's lies and distortion:
The facts clearly favor SCHIP
October 18, 2007
Laughable is the word that best describes Republican efforts to naysay expansion of a crucial children's health insurance program. As the U.S. House attempts today to override President George W. Bush's veto of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, conservatives have been blowing a lot of smoke, and distorting a lot of facts. Here are a few of their most insulting talking points:
• More smokers will have to be created to pay for SCHIP. The bill is financed by a 61-cent-a-pack tax increase on cigarettes, which covers costs for the first five years. In the second five years, the cigarette tax will not be enough. Congress will have to decide in 2012 whether to restrict enrollment or find new revenue sources. That does not mean they will encourage 22 million new smokers.
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• Families making $82,600 a year qualify. This can happen only if the administration grants a waiver. It has already rejected such a request from New York, probably the only state where the cost of living might justify such a request.
• Childless adults benefit more than children do. In Michigan, 42% of SCHIP enrollees are childless adults, a program the state started with the Bush administration's blessing. Enrollees' annual income cannot exceed $3,500; the program is designed mainly to get them preventive care that will keep them out of emergency rooms. Two Republican congressmen (Mike Rogers and Dave Camp) sent a letter supporting the state's application.
In any event, Congress ended this option; it was not in the bill that the president vetoed.
• Illegal immigrants will qualify. Not true now, not true in the bill the president vetoed. A provision that may have helped questionable immigrants was put forth in Congress but taken out before final passage. SCHIP goes only to citizens and legal immigrants who have been in the country at least five years.
• Private insurers will suffer. Some Republicans worry about crowding insurance companies out of the market, but individual health insurance is out of reach for most families already. Some families may drop on-the-job insurance if SCHIP offers more services at a better price. But it won't be many, and it's better than having them drop all coverage when they're squeezed.
This state is so economically stressed that it's unfathomable any Michigan member of Congress would say no to SCHIP. Families who've had employer provided health care are getting laid off and bought out, or seeing their premiums soar, or finding them unaffordable as they try to stave off foreclosure.
There's no decent reason to deprive them of peace of mind over their children's health.
(Detroit Free Press)
Posted by: dt | October 23, 2007 9:27 PM
Imagine the potential benefits to humanity $462 billion dollars (and climbing) could have meant if used to benefit people instead of harm them. We could have found a cure for cancer, global warming, the health care crisis, and most importantly, solve the energy crisis that is responsible for wars in the first place (and the souls lost forever in Iraq)...maybe we could have invested in an alternative source of energy and thus ended the need for the war in the first place (it is all about the oil) and thus ended the need for future wars as well. Imagine that. RIP John Lennon..we will have change soon.
Posted by: Jacqueline | October 23, 2007 10:20 PM
Steny Hoyer and Nancy Pelosi keep doing what they have been doing without success. That is the definiton of insanity.Instead of sitting down with the GOP and working for legislation both sides could support they keep talking that they need to sell SCHIP more. Liberals always make the mistake of talking ad infinitum that's what defeated John F Kerry.
Liberal Democrats we have heard your pleas to skid the grease for Hillary's socialized medicine.
This SCHIP program is for poor children not parents and not families making $83,000 a year. That is above the safety net. This nation is sliding into repackaged socialism with the Democrat liberals including Dem Senate leaders Harry Reid and Dickie Durbin. I now Steny you and Nancy have bloated egos but, stop wasting time W will veto your stupid socialized medicine plan. Jerry White, Springfield, IL
Posted by: Jerryn White | October 24, 2007 12:05 PM
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-Texas):
"And yet, we find that there is no effort on the part of the Democratic leadership to work with the president to see where they can come to common ground and move something through."
Hey, lady, where were the Republic Party politicians in Congress 2001-2006 who worked with the Democrats instead of sticking it to them at every turn?
Non-existent.
As has been posted in the Swamp previously, "payback's a bitch"!
Posted by: BC | October 24, 2007 12:09 PM