Congressman Lamar Smith, Twenty First Congressional
District of Texas
(WASHINGTON) – Arguing that it undermines private health insurance and does not do enough to cover low-income uninsured kids, Congressman Lamar Smith today opposed the Democratic Majority’s bill – H.R. 2 – to reauthorize the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The bill passed the House 289 to 139.
“In the last Congress, we reauthorized and fully funded SCHIP through March 31, 2009, which I supported,” said Smith. “The Democrats should not be allowed to rush this partisan and poorly constructed bill through the legislative process. Instead, we need to work in a bipartisan manner to develop a long-term reauthorization of SCHIP that puts low-income, uninsured kids first.”
In opposing the reauthorization, House Republicans criticized Democrats for:
• Spending billions of dollars to substitute government-run healthcare coverage for private health insurance coverage.
• Enabling illegal aliens to fraudulently enroll in Medicaid and SCHIP.
• Increasing the number of adults on SCHIP, which allows even more resources to be taken away from low-income, uninsured kids.
In its official analysis of the bill, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that half of the 1.1 million new enrollees in the expansion of SCHIP already have private health insurance coverage. For instance, under the expansion, in some states families of four making more than $74,000 a year and families of five making more than $86,000 a year will be eligible for government health insurance.
Smith instead supported the Republican amendment to the bill, which would:
• Reauthorize SCHIP through Fiscal Year 2015, extending the program for six and a half years – two longer than the Democrat bill.
• Cover poor children first by requiring states to cover 90% of children in families making less than 200% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) – $42,400 for a family of four in 2008 – before expanding their SCHIP programs to children in families with income more than 200% FPL.
• Limit states’ ability to ignore portions of applicants’ income for eligibility purposes to no more than $250 per month or $3,000 per year, in order to maintain SCHIP’s focus on covering targeted low-income children.
Smith said he will continue to support responsible legislation that insures those in need.
