Colbert is in his glory declaiming against raising the SCHIP funding.  He says it would offer insurance: 

to millions of uninsured kids whose parents make just a little too much to receive Medicaid.  Now I don’t see the point.  If these kids’ parents tried hard enough, I’m sure they could get poor enough to qualify.

Treat yourself to the whole rant. 

(And thanks to tonva for bringing the video to my attention.)

( – promoted by Clark)

…whether or not he will veto the SCHIP bill.  He is almost certain to veto as he has promised multiple times to do.  What I can’t figure out is just how he squares that with his family values persona.  His argument is that too many children will drop private insurance for SCHIP because they qualify. Seems to think it could even lead to a government takeover of health care. The SEIU has this to say about the Bush and this issue:

“President Bush has a choice to make,” said Dennis Rivera, chair of SEIU Healthcare. “Either he believes children should have healthcare or he doesn’t. Either he believes we are a compassionate, caring society or he doesn’t. Either he respects the members of our Congress and their leadership, or he doesn’t. If he vetoes this bill, he is telling millions of kids that he simply does not care about them.”

Anyway, the compromise bill for SCHIP passed the House by a non-veto proof margin, and yesterday passed the Senate 67-29 in favor of increasing spending on the program to $60 billion over the next five years.  This would be double of what the Decider is willing to allocate.  But it would allow four million children of the nine million currently uninsured to receive health coverage.  The additional spending would be covered by a 61 cent increased on a pack of cigarettes.

The vote in the Senate seems to point to a Senate override of a Decider Veto. Both Missouri Senators voted for the measure and we hope Bond will also join in a vote to override.  The House does not have the votes for override at this time.  Missouri representatives voting for the measure are Lacy Clay, Russ Carnahan, Ike Skelton, Emanual Cleaver and Joann Emerson.  Voting against were Sam Graves, Todd Akin, Roy Blunt, and Kenny Hulsof. It is up to us to flood Nancy Pelosi’s office with calls to campaign the House for override votes with all due energy

The veto is anticipated and Congress will continue funding SCHIP at its current level until mid-November as part of another bill keeping federal agencies in operating funds beyond September 30.

Govs Schwarzenegger of California and Spitzer of New York have issued a joint letter calling on GWB to withdraw the new rules imposed upon the SCHIP (State Children’s Health Program). The rules originated in the *Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, (CMS) and were delivered by letter to states earlier in August while legislators were away on break.

The Governors letter states that these new rules will “set Medicaid and state programs back 40 years”.  Other comments contained within the letter include …”the rules proposed by CMS would install thresholds that are impossible to meet for nearly every state. …your  administration has repeatedly modified existing Medicaid and SCHIP rules, harming states’ capacity to help you achieve our shared objectives”.

The Children’s Defense Fund directors of both New York and California applauded the actions of the Governors and issued the following joint statement.

“We applaud Governor Spitzer and Governor Schwarzenegger for standing up to the Bush Administration on this issue and we hope that other governors and elected officials will join them and put our children’s health before politics”.

Any hope for Missouri to jump on this small bandwagon?

*CMS is a division of the US Department of Health and Human Services

President George W. Scrooge is working like crazy to put the kabash on the SCHIP bill due in Conference Committee upon Congress’ return to Washington.  As discussed previously, both houses of Congress have passed bills that will increase funding for SCHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program).  The House bill calls for an increase of 50 billion dollars and the Senate bill calls for increases of 35 billion dollars. 

George’s vow to veto any bill that proposes more than a five billion dollar increase has the White House looking pretty chintzy.  It’s kids after all. And the funds Congress is attempting to tap to pay for the increase is tobacco and the bonus money that the feds pay insurance to handle Medicare Advantage plans.  So, in addition to this assault on big business, poor George is faced with a private to public transfer of health care rather than the public to private scenario that he and the Republicans prefer.

What would Scrooge do? Well the answer is “take it below the radar”. Contained within the budget that the Administration sent to Congress in February were stricter means guidelines for the child health program. While Congress has not yet accepted that proposal, the current authority for the children’s program is set to expire on September 30.  Action is pending on the SCHIP.  What to do?  Fiddle with the means testing, of course.  New administration policy, sent to state health officials on August 18, contains new standards for states that want to raise eligibility above 250% of the poverty level, $51,465 for a family of four. The Administration contends that as states raise their definition of poverty level, more children who have previously been privately insured become eligible for the public program, and have devised the following set of criteria for enrolling participants in the program.
. 
1) To raise the eligibility, the states must show evidence that they have enrolled at least 95% of children in the state who are eligible for Medicaid or SCHIP because of being below 200% of the federal poverty level. 
2) If a states sets it eligibility requirement above 250% of the poverty level, the state must establish a minimum of one-year period of uninsurance for individuals before they can receive the public coverage.
3) States that wish to cover children above the 250% limit must show that “the number of children in the target population insured through private employers has not decreased by more than two percentage points over the prior five year period”.

.State officials across the country argue that these guidelines are impossible to meet and could cause serious havoc with the programs and cripple the effort to insure more children. Several states, notably New York and California have previously received federal permission to insure children with family incomes that exceed the poverty level, and in the case of New York, by up to 400%, $82,600 for a family of four.  The Administration contends that the states that have previously received approval to cover children over 250% of the poverty level must amend their state plans to meet the new expectations within 12 months or face “corrective action”.

Congress will surely proceed with the conferencing of their bills in September.  The shape of the bill that emerges may not be as important as it would seem if states are going to be hamstrung in utilizing the increased funding.  A presidential veto might not even be required to limit program enrollment.  And Scrooge could come out smelling like a rose.