SCHIP Renewal

Monday, July 30th 2007
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I’ve always been torn on CHIP. It is those far and few between who doesn’t think society owes guarantees to children. The question is merely where to draw the line in terms of family income and such. Well, taking up that issue, the Congressional push to expand the SCHIP program is likely to see Bush get his first veto overturned.

Public support for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) has begotten a bipartisan push in Congress to increase its scope, with Democrats and even reputedly conservative members of the Senate Finance Committee advancing a measure to increase SCHIP’s funding by $35 billion over the next five years.

The expansion would bring total five-year SCHIP spending to $60 billion. Currently, most children covered under the federally-financed and state-administered entitlement live with families earning up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) and do not qualify for Medicaid. Some states have secured federal approval to cover a limited number of adults and middle-income children under the program.

Open Congress has a great blog post on the SCHIP bills in both houses (House version & Senate version) and what Bush has said about the bills. I would very much like to see these bills get through and there’s a really good chance of that.