A CHIP Veto?
July 18th, 2007 at 12:03 am
Items that President Bush will veto: funding for stem cell research, a withdrawal date for troops in Iraq, and, apparently, health insurance for poor kids.
The White House is threatening to veto the bipartisan expansion of the federal CHIP program. A veto won’t effect the state-level increases the Lege passed this session, which should add 100,000 kids to the rolls.
As we mentioned here, Congress has to reauthorize the entire program before it expires Sept. 30, but that seems a given. The debate in Washington centers on whether to expand (and by how much) the successful program that provides insurance for millions of children of working families.
Despite hailing from the state with the largest number of uninsured children in the country, Bush doesn’t think making another 4.1 million kids eligible for CHIP is a good idea. At the end of the New York Times write-up, a White House spokesman provides part of the president’s rationale: “The proposal would dramatically expand the Children’s Health Insurance Program, adding nonpoor children to the program, and more than doubling the level of spending,” Tony Fratto told the Times. “This will have the effect of encouraging many to drop private coverage, to go on the government-subsidized program.” It’s that last point that many commentators, including Matthew Yglesias, see as the main sticking point for Bush.
Texas Republicans have for years rolled out the tattered argument that adding kids to CHIP will tempt families to drop private insurance in exchange for the government program. The evidence for this is sketchy at best.
If, however, the program does get expanded, it means Texas and other states will receive more matching dollars to spend on CHIP in future future years. Of course, the Legislature would have to choose to spend state money on CHIP to draw down the new the federal dollars. And if history is any guide, they very well may not.
July 24th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
[…] health insurance. It’s a tough sell, even to his own party. Bush tried to rationalize his threatened veto of an expansion of the ultra-popular and successful Children’s Health Insurance Program. […]
August 2nd, 2007 at 5:06 pm
[…] backs would “expand” CHIP by only $9 billion. The president, who’s threatened a veto, wants a measly $5 billion increase. (Such a small raise would actually amount to a cut, since […]
August 3rd, 2007 at 10:43 am
[…] backs would “expand” CHIP by only $9 billion. The president, who’s threatened a veto, wants a measly $5 billion increase. (Such a small raise would actually amount to a cut, since […]