Battle brewing in Congress over CHIP funding. - Waco Tribune-Herald (Waco, TX)

Byline: David Doerr

Jul. 11--A fight is shaping up in Congress over tripling the funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program after state lawmakers recently approved measures designed to rebuild the program's enrollment in Texas.

This spring, a bipartisan group of congressmen authorized adding $50 billion to the program over the next five years to keep up with the rising cost of health care and to enroll more children in the program. But the White House criticized the proposal in recent weeks in an attempt to rein in the proposed increase.

Democrats have pushed for the extra $50 billion as part of a major expansion of the program commonly known as CHIP. The 10-year-old program subsidizes the cost of insuring children living in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance.

'Our goal ultimately should be to try to see that every child in America has health care,' said U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco. 'The Democratic proposal moves us an important step in the right direction.'

But President Bush has recently said that Democratic proposal would expand CHIP 'far beyond its original intent.' The proposal would put CHIP in competition with private health care coverage options and would be tantamount to the first steps toward universal health care coverage, he said.

'Government-run health care would deprive Americans of the choice and competition that comes from the private market,' Bush said during a June 27 press briefing. 'It would cause huge increases in government spending, which could lead to higher taxes. It would result in rationing, inefficiency and long waiting lines. It would replace the doctor-patient relationship with dependency on people here in Washington, D.C.'

The federal government spends $5 billion a year on CHIP across the country, totaling $25 billion over five years. Congress previously adopted a budget blueprint that would provide up to $50 billion more, totaling $75 billion over five years.

Bush's proposal is to add a total of $5 billion over five years to the program.

But many believe Bush's proposed increase is not enough to keep up with inflation and to cover the estimated 2 million children across the country who are eligible for the program but not enrolled.

This spring, the Texas Legislature passed changes to eligibility rules adopted in 2003 blamed for cutting the state's enrollment from about 500,000 to 325,000 children.

'Texas has at least 200,000 uninsured out there that were cut before and maybe another 100,000 after that,' said Anne Dunkleburg, assistant director of the Austin-based Center for Public Policy Priorities. 'We can't rebuild our program unless the (funding) grows, too.'

State Sen. Kip Averitt, R-Waco, who helped lead the effort to revise the eligibility rules in Texas this spring, said he views CHIP as a fiscally responsible way to issue health coverage for uninsured children. The new rules are expected to add about 127,000 children to the CHIP rolls in Texas this year.

Because hospitals are not going to turn away uninsured children in need of health care, the state is going to pick up the tab one way or another, Averitt said. The president's proposed CHIP increase should be a 'rock-bottom starting place,' he said.

'(CHIP) ultimately saves taxpayers money and it provides for a more stable family life for the folks to have some kind of dependable insurance coverage,' he said. 'It is worthy of being considered for more funding.'

Rachel Klein, deputy director of health policy for Families USA, a Washington, D.C.-based affordable health-care advocacy group, said CHIP largely has support among Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill. However, there could be disagreement over how to fund the expansion.

Some have pushed for a higher federal excise tax on cigarette sales. Others have called for cutting subsidies to private vendors of Medicare coverage for seniors.

Edwards said he would rather see the increase funded by cutting out inefficiencies in other programs before looking to additional taxes. He also suggested taxing corporations that have sought to shield themselves from federal levies by moving their corporate headquarters to Caribbean islands.

The debate over how much to increase CHIP funding is still in play in Congress.

On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, told the Associated Press that the Senate Finance Committee had worked out an agreement to increase funding by only $35 billion through an increase in the tobacco tax. Other details were unavailable Tuesday but could be announced later this week.

Klein, from Families USA, said $35 billion would be better than nothing, but 'the more money we have, the more kids we are going to be able to get covered.'

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Copyright (c) 2007, Waco Tribune-Herald, Texas

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