Monday, December 17, 2007

SCHIP Debate to Be Continued 

Filed As:  Health Care

One thing that Congress is not going to get done this year is a big expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program. President Bush vetoed the second, equally flawed, bill that Congress sent him, and Congressional leaders know they don't have the votes to override. The president's position was courageous and correct.

SCHIP will be reauthorized, and the only question now is for how long -- a few months, until next fall, or into the administration of a new president? My vote would be for the latter to allow this to be part of the bigger health reform effort that the next president must undertake.

The SCHIP bills that Congress passed would have expanded this government health benefits program well into the middle class, crowding out the private coverage that many children already have. Further, poor kids who most need the coverage would have been lost in the stampede, as legislators meeting recently with the American Legislative Exchange Council confirmed to me.

The American people need to decide if they want a much bigger role for government in the health sector, and the 2008 political campaigns are the proper venues for those conversations.

• posted by Grace-Marie Turner
• 10:09 am
• 0 comment