The House of Representatives in the United States voted 289 to 139 in favour of a bill to expand state-supported children’s health insurance on Wednesday, a move that was was welcomed by president elect Barack Obama, who urged the Senate to support the measure with the same sense of urgency so that it can be one of the first acts of law that he signs when he takes office next Tuesday.

According to the Washington Post, Obama, who has vowed to extend health coverage to every child in the US through expansion of SCHIP, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, told the press that:

“In this moment of crisis, ensuring that every child in America has access to affordable health care is not just good economic policy, but a moral obligation we hold as parents and citizens.”

The House also voted to increase tax on cigarettes to 1 dollar per pack, that is a 61 cent rise, in order to help finance the nearly 33 billion dollars that it will cost to expand SCHIP in the next four and a half years. Taxes on cigars and other tobacco goods would also go up.

The new bill, which was also supported by 40 Republican Representatives, if passed by Senate and signed by Obama, will bring another 4.1 million children and parents under SCHIP, which is designed to give health cover to children whose families can’t afford insurance but earn too much to qualify for the Medicaid insurance program for the poor.

According to Reuters, House Representative Henry Waxman, a California Democrat said:

“This bill is a down payment, a down payment on health care for all Americans.”

Waxman heads the House Energy and Commerce Committee and is predicted to play an important role in helping Obama put together the plan to reform America’s 2.3 trillion dollar health industry, reported Reuters.

The new provision passed by the House will extend to legal immigrant children and pregnant women too. Under present regulations they have to wait five years before coming under SCHIP, which under these new provisions will extend coverage to a total of 11 million people.

President Bush is against increasing tax on tobacco and expanding SCHIP as a way to ensure children are covered; he vetoed both measures in 2007 because he wanted to push for tax relief as a way to help families afford their own private health insurance instead.

This view was reflected in a policy statement issued shortly after the House vote by Republican representatives who said if passed, the bill will be a burden to states that are already struggling to cope with the burgeoning costs of Medicaid. They also objected to the fact that the new measure would extend to children from households earning up to 80,000 dollars a year, thus sending the signal that enrolling these higher income families was more important than enrolling children from poorer and low income families, reported the Washington Post.

And according to Reuters, the Republicans also objected to a provision that would stop doctors from referring patients to hospitals that they partly owned. Texas Republican House Representative Sam Johnson, told the press that:

“Physician-owned hospitals employ highly skilled workers.”

“They are the engine in the local economy and language in this bill will devastate most of them,” he added, saying that this bill will shut down many hospitals.

Following the House vote, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrats and families who have been covered by SCHIP, held a press conference in the Capitol. Pelosi said that with this vote, the House “brought us one step closer to providing 11 million children with health care”.

Pelosi said:

“More than 80 percent of the American people support our bipartisan children’s health insurance bill because they care about the millions of American children who are currently without health care coverage. They understand that 2.6 million people lost their jobs last year — over 520,000 in the month of December alone. And each month now, until we have a recovery initiative enacted into law, 500,000 more people will lose their jobs.”

She added that:

“We look forward to quick Senate action so that we may soon make this one of the first bills signed into law by our new President, Barack Obama.”

Pelosi also highlighted the fact that women played a very important role in bringing this legislation about, praising for example “Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky from Illinois and Congresswoman Diana DeGette, who has championed this bill for a very long time”.

The Senate Finance Committee is expected to discuss the new legislation later today, with floor action starting next week.

Sources: Washington Post, Reuters, Office of the Speaker of the House (via PRN Newswire-US Newswire) .

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD