President Veto's SCHIP Bill

Fox News: President Bush kept his word and vetoed the five-year, $35 billion expansion of the current State Children's Health Insurance Program, SCHIP, because the expanded program offers government-run health care to too many Americans who don't need it. Under the vetoed plan, government-sponsored health coverage would have been expanded from 6.6 million people, mostly children, to include an additional 4 million kids and 700,000 adults. SCHIP is available to people who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but are not able to afford private insurance.

Bush said, "I just vetoed a bill today, and I want to explain to you why. It's called SCHIP, children's health insurance policy. The intent of the program was to focus on poorer children, not adults or families earning up to $83,000 a year. It is estimated that if this program were to become law, one out of every three person(s) that would subscribe to the new expanded SCHIP would leave private insurance. The policies of the government ought to be to help poor children and to focus on poor children." The president has said that the 61-cent tax on each pack of cigarettes to pay for the measure is regressive, and the government should not be providing health care to families whose income is as much as $80,000 a year. He also expressed concern that the offer of low-cost, government-provided health care will encourage many people who already are covered by private insurance to switch, adding considerable strain to the government system.

Democrats are seeking to find enough votes in the House to override the veto. The Senate already has enough votes to override. House Minority Whip Roy Blunt said he was "absolutely confident" that the veto will be sustained. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Wednesday that Congress sent the bill to the president knowing that he wouldn't sign it, and it's now up to lawmakers to come up with an alternative. Bush had requested $5 billion more for the program over five years. Perino said Congress must negotiate a bill that will ensure that children in families that make less than 200 percent of the poverty level are taken care of before the program is expanded beyond them . . . [Read More]

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