Idaho Senators Oppose Cigarette Tax To Fund Health Insurance For Kids

U.S. Sens. Larry Craig and Dirk Kempthorne oppose a bill that would raise the federal cigarette tax by 43 cents per pack to finance health insurance coverage for children in working poor families.

The measure, proposed in the Senate by Massachusetts Democrat Edward Kennedy and Utah Republican Orrin Hatch, is aimed at helping half the nation’s estimated 10 million uninsured children.

Each state would decide whether to participate in the program, how to spend the money and on whom.

About 14 percent of Idaho’s children were uninsured in 1994 compared to 13 percent nationally, according to a report issued this week by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. That would mean about 48,000 Idaho kids lacked health-care coverage.

Idaho’s Medicaid program covers about 52,000 children.

Craig, R-Idaho, opposes the Kennedy-Hatch bill because it would create a new tax-and-entitlement program, spokesman Mike Tracy said Tuesday.

Hatch said his measure would last five years and would not establish any individual entitlement benefits. It would generate $30 billion with one-third going toward reducing the federal budget deficit.

Nonetheless, Tracy said it would be practically impossible to get rid of the program.

“Once you build up an entitlement, you create a constituency and when you try to change it or modify it, they hold your feet to the fire,” he said.

Kempthorne, R-Idaho, has always opposed increasing taxes for new federal programs, spokesman Mark Snider said.

“While the states would be able to participate if they choose, the senator still has concerns whether this proposal would increase access to health insurance for children,” he said.