Thread: STAGE BEING SET FOR SHOWDOWN ON HEALTHCARE

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The Boston Globe

Stage being set for showdown on healthcare
Congress, Bush at odds on plan aiding children

By John Donnelly, Globe Staff | August 4, 2007

WASHINGTON -- The move to offer government-funded health insurance to more poor and low-income children is headed for an apparent showdown this fall between Congress and President Bush, after the Senate passed legislation late Thursday with 68 votes -- just one vote more than lawmakers need to override a threatened veto from the president.

While the final outcome remained uncertain for the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, supporters of the House and Senate bills passed this week said the two pieces of legislation represented great hope for millions of children without health insurance.

"This is the biggest step forward in health insurance for kids of low-wage workers that's happened since this program started 10 years ago," said Lew Finfer, director of Massachusetts Communities Action Network, a federation of faith-based groups. "It puts you on the edge of your seat because we're really close. If President Bush vetoes it, that's a real setback, but there's a chance now to override his veto."

But the House and Senate bills are markedly different in many respects. Lawmakers from both chambers will meet early this fall to find compromises, under a tight deadline: SCHIP is set to expire Sept. 30.

The Senate bill would expand the program from covering 6.6 million mainly low-income children to 9.8 million -- a change that would add $7 billion a year to the program's price tag over the next five years. The cost increase would be covered by a 61-cent rise in the cigarette tax, which would go from 39 cents to $1 a pack.

The House measure is more sweeping, expanding the rolls of insured children to 11 million at a cost of $15 billion over five years. And it would be funded by a combination of tobacco tax increases -- a cigarette pack would cost 45 cents more -- and reductions in federal subsidies to insurance companies that offer private health plans for Medicare beneficiaries.

The House bill also would cover immigrants, while the Senate bill would not.

Bush has repeatedly said that he opposed both bills, predicting that expanding the program would lead more families to abandon their own health insurance plans to take advantage of the government-funded insurance. The White House said the Senate bill "goes too far in federalizing healthcare."

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who was one of the sponsors of the original SCHIP bill, which became law in 1997, said yesterday that the program isn't run by the government, but rather by states using private insurance companies.

"This is a battle that I can't understand why he wants to fight," Kennedy said of Bush.

Compared with the bills before Congress, Bush favors a more modest SCHIP increase of $5 billion annually over the next five years, capping eligibility to 200 percent of the poverty level, which is $41,300 for a family of four. Opponents say it would mean that many states, including Massachusetts, would have to drop thousands of low-income children from their programs.

In July 2006, Massachusetts raised eligibility to children in families earning 300 percent of the poverty level, or $61,950 for a family of four. Now, 90,500 children in Massachusetts are covered under the program.

"You have the president talking about limiting this to a family of four earning $41,000 a year," Kennedy said. "Do you expect that family to be able to afford $10,000 in health insurance?"

But the arguments against the plans, especially the House proposal, are expected to be fierce. Representative Ron Lewis, a Kentucky Republican, yesterday denounced the House bill for including immigrants.

"That bill, if it becomes law, would take $197 billion out of the Medicare trust fund, from our seniors, to give to illegal aliens," Lewis said.

"It also takes money from legitimate kids here in the United States and gives it to people who are not citizens," he said.

AARP, which represents roughly 39 million older Americans, supports the House bill in part because it shifts the costs from private insurance plans for Medicare beneficiaries and gives modest increases to Medicare payments to doctors over the next two years.

Leaders of both parties said yesterday that the legislation's future remained murky.

"We look forward to reconciling those bills and sending them to the president's desk," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat.

Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader and a Republican from Kentucky, said "nobody's against health insurance for truly low-income children. . . . We got a long way to go in children's healthcare before we get to the end of the trail, but hopefully at the end we'll have a program for low-income children, which is what was designed to do 10 years ago."

John Donnelly can be reached at donnelly@globe.com.
© Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

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http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washi ... re?mode=PF

The House measure is more sweeping, expanding the rolls of insured children to 11 million at a cost of $15 billion over five years. And it would be funded by a combination of tobacco tax increases -- a cigarette pack would cost 45 cents more -- and reductions in federal subsidies to insurance companies that offer private health plans for Medicare beneficiaries.
The House bill also would cover immigrants, while the Senate bill would not.

...and herein lies the problem. The House version provides coverage to immigrants (including illegal immigrants, but neither are citizens) and reduces the benefits currently provided to U.S. citizens that are over the age of 65, most often referred to as "seniors". Let me state this another way, the House bill takes benefits away from U.S. citizens in order to provide medical coverage to ILLEGAL ALIENS.

Zeezil, could not have said it better myself! This is what it is boiling down to...American citizens are footing the bill for illegal aliens and we are SICK OF IT! If the politicians and corporate elites want them so bad let THEM foot the bill out of THEIR pocket!

The Senate bill is not much better.The minute you get a green card you are eligible for welfare...Welcome to America.A pregnate woman can walk across the border today and collect welfare tommorow...why you ask...because she is carrying a potential US Citizen...Welcome to America.

Each state is alloted so much money each year and guess who is waiting at the head of the line the minute those funds are available so then there is very little left for those it is meant to help.....Welcome To America.

The bill is written in such a way it gives states the right to give the money to whom they please....Welcome To America.

"You have the president talking about limiting this to a family of four earning $41,000 a year," Kennedy said. "Do you expect that family to be able to afford $10,000 in health insurance?"

It's amazing that families that make this kind of money can seem to afford $35,000 cars and plasma TVs, but can't afford insurance for their children. People get their priorities backwards and think the govt. should pay for their food, healthcare, and housing so they can have more money for all those "goodies" or send back home to Mexico. I can't tell you how many I've seen paying with WIC food cards and driving off in new Ford Expeditions. It's sickening!

This roller-coaster toward socialism is bound to crash. All these politicians are doing is trying to buy themselves votes, so they can go back home and brag about what they did for the children.

Children don't get sick nearly as much as older people. I guess it does a lot of good to have healthy children, but sick parents who can't work and take care of them. Oh, I guess then the govt. will step in and take over from there. It's a marvel just how far we have strayed and corrupted the Constitution and the original intent of the federal govt. It's unrecognizable!

No more benefits to illegal aliens!! Enough is enough!

We have veterans and our elderly stuck in failing health care and nursing facilties. Take care of them -- THEY deserve it -- NOT illegals!