CQ's Carey Discusses Senate Action On Revised SCHIP Bill, FY 2008 Spending Bills, Health IT Legislation

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Also Included In: Public Health;  IT / Internet / E-mail
Article Date: 30 Oct 2007 - 7:00 PDT

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Mary Agnes Carey, associate editor of CQ HealthBeat, examines pending Senate action on a revised SCHIP bill recently approved in the House, the fiscal year 2008 Labor-HHS-Educations spending bill, as well as health information technology legislation approved by a House committee in this week's "Health on the Hill from kaisernetwork.org and CQ."

According to Carey, the Senate could take action on a revised SCHIP bill this week. The House last week voted 265-142 to approve the revised measure but again failed to garner enough votes to override a promised presidential veto. House Democrats said the new legislation addresses all major Republican complaints about the first SCHIP bill, namely that it would allow wealthy families, undocumented immigrants and adults to enroll in the program. The new bill would limit SCHIP eligibility to families with incomes up to 300% of the federal poverty level, but it still would fund a $35 billion expansion of the program by increasing the tobacco tax, which Republicans and President Bush oppose. Republicans and Bush also said that the revisions did not address their concerns in a meaningful way.

Carey also discusses Senate approval of a $606 billion FY 2008 Labor-HHS-Education spending bill. The measure now goes to a House-Senate conference, but Bush has said that he will veto the bill because its total funding is more than he requested, according to Carey.

Finally, Carey says a House panel approved legislation that would give the National Institute of Standards and Technology one year to develop or adopt health IT standards for use by federal health agencies. Proponents say the standards will streamline administrative tasks, eliminate waste and reduce medical errors. Carey adds that the committee adopted a manager's amendment by voice vote that would authorize $8 million in FY 2008 and FY 2009 to fund health IT research grants (Carey, "Health on the Hill from kaisernetwork.org and CQ," 10/29).

The complete audio version of "Health on the Hill," transcript and resources for further research are available online at kaisernetwork.org.

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© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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