Critics say presidential veto of child healthcare bill will hurt Washington

Published 10:00 am Saturday, October 6, 2007

Hundreds in Island County won’t get Medicaid coverage

Hundreds of children in Island County lost their shot at medical care after President Bush vetoed a bill this week to expand a children’s health insurance program, state health officials said.

Called the (State) Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007, the bill vetoed by Bush on Wednesday would have renewed the program for five years.

It would have continued coverage for 6.6 million children already covered by SCHIP, including more than 15,000 children in Washington state.

The bill also extended healthcare coverage to 3.8 million children who are currently uninsured, including more than 50,000 children in Washington.

In Island County, 2,390 children receive coverage from Medicaid, which covers families that earn up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level ($41,300 for a family of four).

A total of 61 children are in families that are covered up to the 250 percent level.

The state Legislature wanted to increase the limit to 300 percent on Jan. 1, 2009 and passed a bill to do so.

The Bush veto prevents Washington from raising SCHIP eligibility above 250 percent, however.

Jim Stevenson, spokesman for the state Health and Recovery Services Administration in the Department of Social and Health Services, said the veto means more than 300 children in the county will not receive health insurance coverage because the program cannot be expanded.

“We could have done that under the legislation that was vetoed; without that legislation we won’t be able to do that.

“There is about another 338 children who are uninsured in Island County between that 250 percent limit and that 300 percent mark,” he said.

Stevenson said 20 states in all have raised or are planning to raise the eligibility mark above 250 percent. Most of those states want to raise the level to 300 percent.

“There are a whole lot of states that are in this crunch. And there are some states that have spent all their SCHIP money now and are out of money. They are in much worse shape than Washington state,” he said.

Earlier this week, Gov. Chris Gregoire said Washington would join other states in a lawsuit against the federal government over new SCHIP eligibility rules that prevent states from expanding the program.

Gov. Gregoire’s office said the new rules that prompted the multi-lawsuit were adopted outside the standard administrative rule-making process and without the support of Congress. The regulations also prohibited offering healthcare to a child unless the child went without healthcare for at least a year.

Bush’s veto brought strong criticism from leaders in both parties. Some compared the cost of the increase in the program — $35 billion over five years — with the cost of the war in Iraq.

U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-2nd District, said he would continue to press for the expansion of the program.

“President Bush vetoed bipartisan legislation that would have provided health care to millions of low-income children who need it,” Larsen said in a statement. “The president’s decision to deny health care coverage to millions of kids was the wrong choice for our country and the wrong choice for Washington state.

“I will keep working with my colleagues from both parties to build support for this bill and overcome the president’s opposition,” Larsen added.

The SCHIP expansion bill proposed by Democrats passed on a bipartisan vote; 18 Senate Republicans voted for the bill, as well as 45 Republicans in the House.

The White House said the expansion would push millions of children who now have private health insurance into government-run healthcare, and warned that it was a move toward the Democrats’ goal of government-run healthcare.

Stevenson disputed critics’ claim that the program would provide coverage for middle-income families who should be buying their own private health insurance.

“There is a big difference between an income that’s 300 percent of the federal poverty level in Mississippi and in Seattle,” Stevenson said.

“The reason states are increasing the limits is that states are the best judges of where to draw that line, and the bigger, urban states are finding that their residents at those income levels are having a huge problem affording private coverage,” he said.

“If you don’t have coverage from an employer, you would easily have to spend $1,000 or more a month – virtually the cost of a second home – to purchase your own coverage for a family of four.”

Stevenson also said uninsured rates are rising across the country because people are losing insurance coverage that was once provided by their employers.