SCHIP shot

The Baltimore Sun

When the bipartisan leadership of the powerful Senate Finance Committee hammers out a deal to renew a popular health care program for poor children, as it did last week, odds are that something at least similar will be enacted.

No doubt that's what has President Bush so worried that he's issuing veto threats before the first vote on the State Children's Health Insurance Program legislation has been cast.

But with his bromides about federalized medicine - and the absurd suggestion that the working poor could afford private health insurance if only they got better tax treatment - Mr. Bush makes himself look hopelessly out of touch on this issue, even with GOP stalwarts. They should call his bluff.

The 10-year-old SCHIP, which expires this fall, has been wildly successful. Some 6.6 million children, whose parents are not quite poor enough to qualify for Medicaid but in no position to buy private insurance on their own, are now getting regular and preventive medical care through SCHIP that would not otherwise have been available to them.

No one is advocating that the program be scrapped. At issue is whether financing should be increased to a more realistic level so that states like Maryland that have been very aggressive about enrolling eligible children don't run out of money, as they did this year. About 105,000 children are now served by the Maryland Children's Health Program, which had been budgeted back in 1997 for about half that number.

The Senate Finance Committee proposal would add $35 billion to SCHIP over five years to maintain the current number of children covered and add 3.3 million more, leaving another 6 million or so without insurance. A draft House proposal would increase the five-year budget by $50 billion so that half the 8 million to 9 million children lacking insurance today would be covered.

By contrast, Mr. Bush has proposed to add only $5 billion over five years to the current program, which was budgeted in 1997 at $40 billion over 10 years. He warned last week that expanding the program as Congress envisions would only encourage people to drop private or employer coverage they have today in order to take advantage of the government largesse - though similar predictions 10 years ago haven't been borne out. Mr. Bush also sees SCHIP expansion as part of a larger strategy to someday get all Americans on the health care dole. This, from the man who sponsored the largest expansion of Medicare since its 1965 inception.

The truth, as Mr. Bush well knows, is that providing regular access to medical care, particularly for children, is a bargain compared with dealing with the consequences of ill health later. Congress must overrule him.

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