Cantwell bolsters plan to expand insurance

A threatened veto by President Bush didn’t prevent Sen. Maria Cantwell from stopping in Spokane on Saturday to cheer a Senate committee’s approval of a plan to expand health insurance for low-income children in Washington and the nation.

Cantwell, D-Wash., is a member of the Senate Finance Committee, which voted 17-4 this week to add about $35 billion in federal money over five years to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP.

A 61 cent-a-pack increase in cigarette taxes would pay for the expansion, which aims to add 3.3 million uninsured children to the program that now serves 6 million nationwide. In Washington state, that means more than 35,000 children who lack health insurance would be covered, Cantwell said.

The bill is now headed to the Senate floor. However, Bush has threatened to veto the expansion if it passes Congress, saying he prefers to hold the line on spending for the program that now costs the federal government about $5 billion a year. Bush has proposed adding about $5 billion more to the program over the next five years, while advocates for the plan have pushed for an increase of as much as $50 billion during the same period.

“We’ve cleared the first hurdle to make sure that every child in America has access to health care,” Cantwell said in a statement in Spokane on Saturday. “But the president’s veto puts this entire plan at risk.”