Senate Approves Bill To Expand Kids’ Health Insurance Program
On Thursday, the Senate voted 66-32 to approve legislation (HR 2) that would reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program and expand coverage to about four million additional children over the next four-and-a-half years, the Washington Post reports (Connolly, Washington Post, 1/30).
SCHIP is set to expire on March 31.
Under the bill, children in families with incomes of up to three times the federal poverty level would qualify for the program.
The measure would exempt New Jersey and New York state from those income eligibility requirements and would allow the states to expand coverage to children in higher-income families. The bill also would eliminate a five-year waiting period for children and pregnant women who are documented immigrants to become eligible for the program (Freking, AP/Houston Chronicle, 1/29).
The measure, which would increase SCHIP spending by $32.8 billion over the four-and-a-half-year period, would be funded by a 62-cent-per-pack increase in the federal cigarette tax, according to a recent Congressional Budget Office estimate (Armstrong, CQ Today, 1/29). CBO estimates that the bill would expand coverage to an additional four million children by 2013, while continuing coverage for seven million children.
No Senate Democrats voted against the bill, and nine Republicans voted in favor of the legislation (Pear, New York Times, 1/30). The bill now moves to the House.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said that because the House and Senate versions of the bill are so similar, the House would clear the Senate bill and send it to President Obama without holding a conference on the legislation (CQ Today, 1/29). The Senate bill does not include a provision included in the House version that would have prevented new physician-owned hospitals from opening (AP/Houston Chronicle, 1/29).
Amendments
Senators adopted an amendment proposed by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) to eliminate a requirement that parents provide a signature on official government forms when enrolling them through a process known as the "Express Lane."
Several amendments proposed by Republicans were voted down, including language that would have:
- Given funding priority to states with a higher percentage of uninsured residents;
- Eliminated all existing federal exemptions for states that cover families with incomes greater than 300% of the federal poverty level; and
- Allowed states to provide premium assistance for purchasing private coverage to families with incomes greater than the current SCHIP eligibility limit of two times the poverty level (CQ Today, 1/29).