Editorials, Opinion Pieces Address Recent House Passage Of SCHIP Expansion Bill

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Article Date: 22 Jan 2009 - 1:00 PDT

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The House last week voted to approve a bill (HR 2) to renew and expand SCHIP to about four million additional children. The measure, which would be almost completely funded by a 61-cent-per-pack increase in the federal cigarette tax, extends the program by four-and-one-half years at a cost of $32.3 billion. Supporters of the bill say it will raise the number of children covered by SCHIP from around seven million to around 11 million (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 1/15). Summaries of several recent editorials and opinion pieces regarding the bill's passage appear below.

Editorials

• Houston Chronicle: It is "unfathomable" that 20 Republican U.S. congressmembers from Texas voted against SCHIP when the state "leads the nation in percentage of uninsured children," according to a Chronicle editorial. According to the editorial, the Texas lawmakers opposed the SCHIP bill "on the grounds it is socialized medicine, too costly and subsidizes" care for undocumented immigrants. However, that argument "ignor[es] this fact: Taxpayers already bear the cost of treatment for the uninsured." The editorial continues, "Every child covered by the state-supplied private policies is one less expense for area health care providers, who otherwise pass the cost of indigent care on to insured patients." The editorial concludes, "In opposing SCHIP expansion, lawmakers are putting their ideology above the interests of their constituents" (Houston Chronicle, 1/19).
  
  
• Philadelphia Inquirer: With the Senate "likely ... to follow suit" and approve companion SCHIP legislation, "Landing this bill on [President Obama]'s desk soon would be an important early win for the administration, and also would bode well for more comprehensive health care reform to follow," an Inquirer editorial states. According to the editorial, "By taxing tobacco for the expansion, Congress has answered critics on the cost -- for now," but "[a]dditional tax hikes may be needed if the program's cost increases." The editorial continues, "With unemployment rising and the economic turmoil threatening millions of workers' health insurance, ... the boost in SCHIP should be viewed in the larger context of the nation's economic rescue and recovery efforts." It concludes, "In other words, it's a good investment in stabilizing families and helping to assure that America's neediest kids have a healthy future" (Philadelphia Inquirer, 1/17).
  
  
• Wall Street Journal: By approving the bill, the "House made its first down payment on President Obama's health care plans," a Journal editorial states. "The bill became a liberal Pequot after President Bush repeatedly vetoed it in 2007 (while supporting a modest expansion)," according to the Journal, adding, "The GOP has no hope of stopping it now, so [SCHIP] will more than double in size with $73.3 billion in new spending over the next decade -- not counting a budget gimmick that hides the true cost." The editorial states that SCHIP "money is delivered as a block grant, which states are supposed to match, though national taxpayers end up paying 65% to 83% of the total cost," adding, "When states make health care promises they can't afford, ... the feds always step in with ... a bailout." The House bill "creates a 'contingency fund' precisely for that purpose, and also allots bonus payments to states that boost SCHIP enrollment, so governors will be further rewarded for overspending," according to the editorial. It continues, "All this is propped up by a permanent increase in the tobacco tax, ... thus financing a permanent and growing entitlement with a declining corps of smokers." The editorial concludes, "Lately, Mr. Obama has been making noises about the necessity of entitlement reform," adding, "This is no way to start" (Wall Street Journal, 1/21).

Opinion Pieces

• Markos Moulitsas, The Hill: Republican lawmakers "drew a line in the sand and worked with President Bush to derail" the extension of SCHIP because they believed that it "was better to have kids go without proper health care and risk short-term electoral pain than to endanger the GOP's long-term electoral prospects," columnist Moulitsas writes. According to Moulitsas, founder and publisher of Daily Kos, Republicans believe that the "more that people felt government was their ally," in offering a form of universal health care, "the more they would be compelled to vote Democratic in future elections." Moulitsas continues, "Hence, Republicans were forced to stand in the way of the common good, lest their future electoral fortunes take a turn for the worse" (Moulitsas, The Hill, 1/20).
  
  
• Michelle Malkin, Washington Times: The proposed tobacco tax increase to fund the bill "is Dr. Big Nanny's prescription for recession -- punitive tax increases on the poor to feed a universal health care Trojan horse," syndicated columnist Malkin writes in a Times opinion piece. Citing data from the National Taxpayers Union, Malkin writes that "families making less than $30,000 per year pay more than half of all taxes paid on cigarettes, while families making more than $60,000 pay only 14%." She concludes, "I can tell you for sure that the SCHIP expansion is a rest stop on the road to a universal health insurance entitlement built on the backs of overtaxed low-income workers," adding, "Welcome to the era of 'shared sacrifice'" (Malkin, Washington Times, 1/18).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

© 2009 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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