Passage Of New Children's Health Bill Gains Obama's Support
WASHINGTON, February 2
An early health care victory is now closer on the way for President Barack Obama as the Democratic-controlled Congress and the Senate Thursday passed a bill that would extend government backed health insurance coverage to about 4 million children who are now uninsured.
The bill was approved 66-32, and authorizes over the next 4 1/2 years, an additional $32.8 billion to be used for the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Next week the House will be dealing with the same measure.
Irregardless of this flaunting of added spending, still an estimated approximately 5 million children will be without health insurance. While he was campaigning for the presidency, Obama made a request for having a requirement that all children be provided with health coverage.
Sen. Max Baucus, the Democrat from Montana said that it will truly be a victory for the kids and not politicians when Obama signs the bill.
An increase in the federal excise tax on cigarettes from 39 cents to $1 a pack is the means being used by the bill for expanding SCHIP. Those against the bill are saying that it is the poor who will be hit the hardest.
Republican amendments to limit expansion of the program were rejected by the Democratic majority. A prohibition on using federal money to cover children of newly arrived legal immigrants was included among the failed amendments as well as a stricter income limit in some states for those families participating.
According to the present legal restrictions, a five-year waiting period is required prior to legal immigrants become eligible for coverage under Medicaid and SCHIP. It was the argument on the part of the Democrats that removing the ban would therefore assist children before a small health problem became a big one.
As Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois explains it, it is likely that many of these children are already U.S. citizens or that they will become U.S citizens, and it does not make any sense for their family for them to be unhealthy, nor does it in any way make sense for the nation.
There has been bipartisan support for expanding SCHIP. Former President George W. Bush twice vetoed bills to expand the program during 2007. Although the Senate managed a vote to override Bush, the House fell short by about 15 votes for an override.
There have been virtually scores of interest groups that have lined up in giving support for putting more money in SCHIP. These include trade groups representing hospitals, insurers, unions, doctors and the pharmaceutical industry.
Still there are some Republican senators who are complaining that in the past Democrats had worked closely with many of them on SCHIP but that when crafting the bill this year they had ignored them.
In voting for the bill there were nine Republicans who joined the 57 Democrats. There was no Democrat who voted against it.