Last year's SCHIP debate appeared to be less about providing affordable health care to low-income children than about bailing out states that had overextended their budgets, says Dennis G. Smith of The Heritage Foundation.

Among the states that received nearly $1.3 billion in additional federal funds in 2006 and 2007 because of budget shortfalls, seven received 79% of the funds and covered children at high income levels, adults, or in some cases, both.

Congress can return SCHIP to its original focus on uninsured low-income children by setting a firm cap on eligibility that applies to both SCHIP and Medicaid and by restoring fiscal discipline. Blindly expanding SCHIP up the income scale would eclipse the potential of other more desirable ways of expanding health coverage for children in lower- and lower-middle-income families -- especially refundable health care tax credits, an option that has already attracted a broad bipartisan and philosophical consensus.