[b]http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/26834.html

SCHIP's fate may hang in balance
President Barack Obama rarely passes up the chance to assure his audiences that if they like their insurance, they will be able to keep it under a reformed health care system.

But there is one group that could become an asterisk to his pledge: lower-income children.


Democratic members of Congress and advocacy groups are alarmed at a proposal in the Senate Finance Committee to move children out of the popular State Children’s Health Insurance Program when it expires in 2013 and into a new insurance exchange where they would be covered with their parents.


The proposal has stoked concern among advocates that the families of lower-income children could lose more than they gain in a health care overhaul, leaving them with higher out-of-pocket costs and fewer benefits. A bloc of liberal senators and 150 organizations have called on Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to opt for continuity and maintain SCHIP as it is, at least until the kinks are worked out of the reformed system.


“The intention of people working on the legislation is to preserve the types of benefits that are currently available through CHIP, but once you start digging through the language and provisions, it is clear that there is no guarantee that children won’t be left worse off,â€