Latest news: Coleman, Klobuchar to back boost in kid’s health insurance funds
By PAMELA BROGAN pbrogran@gannett.com
Published: September 27. 2007 12:30AM - Last updated: September 27. 2007 5:37PMWASHINGTON — Defying a presidential veto threat, Minnesota’s Sens. Norm Coleman and Amy Klobuchar are expected to vote in favor of a bill tonight that would provide health care coverage for an additional 3.8 million low-income children across the nation, including 35,000 in Minnesota.
The expected Senate vote follows a House vote Tuesday to renew the State Children’s Health Insurance Program until 2012 and add $35 billion for the program over five years by raising the federal tobacco tax.
The program is set to expire Sept. 30.
“This is about doing the right thing for families and ensuring access to health insurance for children who need it most, “ Coleman, a Republican, said in a statement. “This bill represents a sensible, bipartisan compromise, and I strongly encourage the President to sign it into law.”
In a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday evening, Klobuchar, a Democrat, said the program is important to Minnesota because it has “bolstered coverage for low-income children and their parents.”
Minnesota has one of the lowest percentages of uninsured children in the nation at 8.3 percent compared with nearly 12 percent nationally, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The state uses federal SCHIP dollars to also cover low-income adults under a waiver from the federal government.
Minnesota obtained a waiver because it was covering a large percentage of uninsured children when the federal-state program was created in 1997. It is designed to aid children from working families who make too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance.
The state program, known as MinnesotaCare, covers about 19,000 low-income parents.
“When parents have coverage, children are more likely to have and keep coverage,” Klobuchar said.
Under the bill, adults would be transitioned out of the program over five years.
Minnesota Medicaid Director Christine Bronson said the bill has pluses and minuses.
“The compromise bill has some benefits to Minnesota, like allowing us to use SCHIP funds for children we’re already covering in Medical Assistance and MinnesotaCare, but it restricts our current coverage of parents which is a loss,” Bronson said.
She said Minnesota would receive an additional $50 million annually if the bill was signed into law, but would lose revenue as a result of the 61-cent increase in the federal tax on a pack of cigarettes.
On Tuesday, the House approved the bill 265 to159 but supporters say they still don’t have the votes to override the president’s threatened veto.
Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann voted against the House-passed bill.
“I strongly support SCHIP and legislation that is truly focused on helping needy children,” Bachmann said in a statement. “This bill will not be signed into law because, sadly, it plays politics with children’s health care,” she said.
Politics? You mean how it is supported by a large bipartisan group of legislators? I believe they call that WORKING TOGETHER!
Instead, Bachmann is co-sponsor of a bill to extend the program for 18 months at its current funding level of $25 billion.
The compromise bill worked out by the House and the Senate is $30 billion more than the $4.8 billion increase the Bush administration requested.
And how effective is the bill Bachmann supports?
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that an additional $13 billion is needed to pay for current children in the program because of medical inflation.
Under Bush’s plan, about 350,000 children would lose their insurance unless states provided additional funding, or cut benefits or eligibility, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The center provides research and analysis on issues that affect low-income families.
Michele Bachmann, She supports a plan to give 350,000 fewer poor children health care!
A new slogan perhaps?
