Thread: SENATE APPROVES CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE EXPANSION

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Senate approves children's health insurance expansion
Friday, August 03, 2007 -

By Herman Wang
Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- The Senate late Thursday approved a $35 billion expansion of a popular children's health insurance program, on the heels of the House passing an even larger, $50 billion expansion the day before.

The Senate bill, which passed 68-31, would add 3 million children to the 6 million needy children now covered under the State Children's Health Insurance Program and would fund the expansion through a 61-cent tobacco tax increase.

SCHIP, created in 1997, subsidizes the cost of health insurance for children whose parents earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to afford private insurance.

Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, both R-Tenn., voted for the bill, while Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, both R-Ga., voted against.

"I think all of us know this is far from perfect," Sen. Corker said of the SCHIP expansion bill. "I'm going to err on the side, when I look at health care, of making sure people have access to it. I think it's a tremendous moral obligation we have to ensure that."

But Sen. Isakson said expanding SCHIP would move the country too close to government-run health care. Over the years, the federal government has issued several waivers to states to offer coverage for children of families with higher incomes, as well as adults.

"I fought the administration on that," Sen. Isakson said. "I am for poor children having coverage, but we need to ensure that we're covering kids and that they're in poverty or in need."

The federal government contributes about $5 billion annually to SCHIP. The Senate bill would add $35 billion over five years, while the House bill, which passed Wednesday largely along party lines, would add $50 billion over five years.

Both the Senate and House bills face veto threats, as President Bush has suggested adding just $5 billion over five years. The program is set to expire Sept. 30.

The House bill would finance its SCHIP expansion by cutting Medicare payments to insurance companies and increasing cigarette taxes by 45 cents. The Tennessee and Georgia delegations split along party lines on the vote, with Democrats in favor.

"It takes care of poor children, and it extends additional funding for rural hospitals," Rep. Lincoln Davis, D-Tenn., said. "I think it was the right thing to do."

Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., called the bill a "backdoor way of enacting national health care."

He and Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga., criticized provisions in the legislation that would make SCHIP potentially available to illegal immigrants and protested the tobacco tax hike and Medicare cuts.

"You're cutting benefits for senior citizens to use the money to pay for middle-income families to get health care," Rep. Deal said. "You don't need to do that."

Rep. Davis, however, said pay-as-you-go requirements instituted by House Democrats necessitated the revenue offsets.

"When the Republicans gave us that bill 10 years ago, they gave us $30 billion in debt," he said. "At least this is paid for. It's not borrow-and-spend anymore."

State governments, which designed their own coverage plans under SCHIP, had been anxious to see the program reauthorized.

In Tennessee, the program is called CoverKids. Enrollment has been slow, with about 2 percent of some 125,000 uninsured and eligible children in the state signed up. Gov. Phil Bredesen will be in Chattanooga today to promote the program.

Georgia last month lifted a freeze on its SCHIP program, PeachCare, but capped enrollment at 295,000 as it awaits Congress' action on SCHIP. Current enrollment is about 280,000.

E-mail Herman Wang at hwang@timesfreepress.com

Chattanooga Times Free Press
http://www.timesfreepress.com/

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http://www.timesfreepress.com/absoluten ... es/local.a

Psalm 91

Does this mean that Senators Alexander and Corker of Tennessee voted for illegal aliens? In Bradley County, Tennessee and the City of Cleveland, the CoverKids insurance program is being overseen by an organization that helps illegal aliens the news stated. Illegal Aliens were not entitiled to TENNCARE, yet illegal aliens were on TENNCARE, costing millions of dollars and resulting in Americans being thrown off of the program. The organization that offers CoverKids in Cleveland, TN is the Ocoee Regional Multicultural Services center.



Psalm 91

Senate Roll Call: Children's Insurance
The Associated Press
Updated: 08/03/07 12:59 AM


The 68-31 vote Thursday by which the Senate added 3 million lower-income children to the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

On this vote, a "yes" vote was a vote to pass the measure.

Voting "yes" were 48 Democrats and 18 Republicans and 2 independents.

Voting "no" were 31 Republicans.

Alabama

Sessions (R) No; Shelby (R) No.

Alaska

Murkowski (R) Yes; Stevens (R) Yes.

Arizona

Kyl (R) No; McCain (R) No.

Arkansas

Lincoln (D) Yes; Pryor (D) Yes.

California

Boxer (D) Yes; Feinstein (D) Yes.

Colorado

Allard (R) No; Salazar (D) Yes.

Connecticut

Dodd (D) Yes; Lieberman (I) Yes.

Delaware

Biden (D) Yes; Carper (D) Yes.

Florida

Martinez (R) No; Nelson (D) Yes.

Georgia

Chambliss (R) No; Isakson (R) No.

Hawaii

Akaka (D) Yes; Inouye (D) Yes.

Idaho

Craig (R) No; Crapo (R) No.

Illinois

Durbin (D) Yes; Obama (D) Yes.

Indiana

Bayh (D) Yes; Lugar (R) Yes.

Iowa

Grassley (R) Yes; Harkin (D) Yes.

Kansas

Brownback (R) No; Roberts (R) Yes.

Kentucky

Bunning (R) No; McConnell (R) No.

Louisiana

Landrieu (D) Yes; Vitter (R) No.

Maine

Collins (R) Yes; Snowe (R) Yes.

Maryland

Cardin (D) Yes; Mikulski (D) Yes.

Massachusetts

Kennedy (D) Yes; Kerry (D) Yes.

Michigan

Levin (D) Yes; Stabenow (D) Yes.

Minnesota

Coleman (R) Yes; Klobuchar (D) Yes.

Mississippi

Cochran (R) No; Lott (R) No.

Missouri

Bond (R) Yes; McCaskill (D) Yes.

Montana

Baucus (D) Yes; Tester (D) Yes.

Nebraska

Hagel (R) No; Nelson (D) Yes.

Nevada

Ensign (R) No; Reid (D) Yes.

New Hampshire

Gregg (R) No; Sununu (R) Yes.

New Jersey

Lautenberg (D) Yes; Menendez (D) Yes.

New Mexico

Bingaman (D) Yes; Domenici (R) Yes.

New York

Clinton (D) Yes; Schumer (D) Yes.

North Carolina

Burr (R) No; Dole (R) No.

North Dakota

Conrad (D) Yes; Dorgan (D) Yes.

Ohio

Brown (D) Yes; Voinovich (R) No.

Oklahoma

Coburn (R) No; Inhofe (R) No.

Oregon

Smith (R) Yes; Wyden (D) Yes.

Pennsylvania

Casey (D) Yes; Specter (R) Yes.

Rhode Island

Reed (D) Yes; Whitehouse (D) Yes.

South Carolina

DeMint (R) No; Graham (R) No.

South Dakota

Johnson (D) Not Voting; Thune (R) No.

Tennessee

Alexander (R) Yes; Corker (R) Yes.

Texas

Cornyn (R) No; Hutchison (R) Yes.

Utah

Bennett (R) No; Hatch (R) Yes.

Vermont

Leahy (D) Yes; Sanders (I) Yes.

Virginia

Warner (R) Yes; Webb (D) Yes.

Washington

Cantwell (D) Yes; Murray (D) Yes.

West Virginia

Byrd (D) Yes; Rockefeller (D) Yes.

Wisconsin

Feingold (D) Yes; Kohl (D) Yes.

Wyoming

Barrasso (R) No; Enzi (R) No.

The entire program expansion is designed solely to benefit illegal aliens. They only have a small percentage enrolled now under the present program, WHY expand it???? In TN., cigarette taxes increased 42 cents a pack to fund pre-K programs. It would bring it to a total of over $1.00 a pack increase. Some will say "who cares, the smokers should pay." BUT, consider in England they are now considering a "fat tax" to fund health services. What's next?? If the program reaches a shortfall, then they will have to tax something else!