House Passes Bill to Expand Children’s Health Insurance Program
Today, the House voted 289 to 139 to pass a bill to expand the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which President-elect Obama endorsed. The bill would provide $32.3 billion over four and a half years to continue coverage for seven million children who now rely on the program and to extend coverage to more than four million who are uninsured.
“In this moment of crisis, ensuring that every child in America has access to affordable health care is not just good economic policy, but a moral obligation we hold as parents and citizens,” Mr. Obama said in a statement.“ That is why I’m so pleased that Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives came together to provide health insurance to over ten million children whose families have been hurt most by this downturn. This coverage is critical, it is fully paid for, and I hope that the Senate acts with the same sense of urgency so that it can be one of the first measures I sign into law when I am President.” President Bush twice had vetoed similar legislation.
The Senate Finance Committee is expected to approve a similar bill on Thursday, with action by the full Senate to follow quickly. The bills would be financed by an increase in tobacco taxes, including a 61-cent increase in the tax on cigarettes, to $1 pack.
The House bill includes a major new provision that would allow states to restore health insurance benefits to legal immigrants under 21. Under current law, legal immigrants are generally barred from Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program for five years after they enter the United States. The House bill would allow states to do away with that waiting period for children and pregnant women.
House Republicans raised several objections to the bill. While the cost of the child health program will increase, they said, tobacco revenues will not, so the government will face a widening gap that will probably be filled with additional tax increases in the future. Moreover, Republicans said, under the bill, some of the money will be spent to provide public coverage for children who already have private health insurance through their parents’ employers. Republicans also complained that the bill did not require states to cover the poorest children first, before covering children from middle-income families.
Democrats said the recession and rising unemployment had increased the need for the bill. Since the House last voted on the issue in January 2008, the number of unemployed has increased nearly 50%, to 11.1 million.
SS