Surprising year for kids’ health insurance

WASHINGTON – The modest spending increase that Congress approved for a popular children’s health insurance program will maintain coverage for those already enrolled. But many lacking insurance will have to look elsewhere.

Few expected such a result when 2007 began. Democrats proposed a huge spending increase on the federal-state partnership known as the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Many Republicans embraced the idea. Meanwhile, states all over the country were drawing up plans to expand health coverage.

A lot of those plans have been scuttled. The spending increase most lawmakers supported has been vetoed twice by President Bush, who balked at the $35 billion price tag and method of payment – a tobacco tax.

“We were all very, very hopeful. Now, we feel like they are farther apart than they were a year ago,” said Cindi Jones, who oversees Virginia’s SCHIP program.

Virginia was one of several states going into the year thinking about expanding eligibility limits for SCHIP. It’s a typical state in that it provides health coverage for families with incomes up to twice the federal poverty level – $34,340 for a family of three. Jones said officials considered moving the eligibility limit to at least $42,925.

“This just didn’t seem like the right time to raise the eligibility with the uncertainty of what’s going on at the federal level,” Jones said.

Some analysts say the number of children getting SCHIP coverage may still decline next year – a bitter prospect for Democrats who promised they would expand enrollment from 6 million children to 10 million.

“We are left with a package that addresses the most immediate concerns, but leaves any real health care improvements for another day,” Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said during last week’s SCHIP debate.

Republican lawmakers say they want to work out a compromise. But many are satisfied with the extension the House approved last Wednesday. Republican leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the extension “provides all the resources necessary to cover low-income children who need quality health insurance.”

Republicans say any expansion should not allow middle-income families to drop private coverage for the public kind. They insisted that SCHIP retain a new Bush administration directive that makes it harder for states to cover middle-income children. Democrats promised to rescind the directive but failed.

Lawmakers from both parties say that when they return in January, they will try to work out a compromise on SCHIP. Differences over who should get coverage have clearly narrowed. But differences over how to pay for expansion remain considerable.