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Tuesday, July 10, 2007
SCHIP Lurching Forward
When I think of the Senate, I picture something like the insides of a very old and very big clock, with gigantic rusty gears that move extremely slowly. Well, it seems like, when it comes to expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), those gears are finally starting to turn, but slowly, of course, and with so much effort and compromise required for so little movement.
CongressDaily (subscription only) is reporting that the Senate Finance Committee has reached an agreement on the scope of the SCHIP expansion- apparently it'll be for $35 billion over 5 years, while the CBO has put the cost of covering all uninsured children eligible for SCHIP at $47.5 billion. Still, the $35 billion may be close to enough to full coverage because, as Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR) has said, adults who are on the program might get kicked off. Lovely.
They've also agreed to finance the expansion by increasing the tobacco tax by 61 cents. That's instead of cutting costs in the Medicare Advantage program, which would have been opposed by the health insurance industry, whose bottom lines are far more important than ensuring that kids get good medical care. Far easier to levy a highly regressive tax.
The bill is expected to be marked up and approved by the Finance Committee next Tuesday. We'll see how the full Senate responds. Only people like Sens. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) have said they oppose it. The President says he opposes the expansion on "ideological" grounds, or something related to the role of government, blah blah blah. Isn't this the same guy who created the Medicare prescription drug benefit?
Anyway, unseemly compromise is what the Senate is all about. So while it's hard to like the way this bill is taking shape, it's hard to see an alternative. It might be wise to appreciate any movement we get out of the Senate's big old rusty gears.
Posted by Matt Lewis
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