Bush Vetoes SCHIP Legislation:Congress Unlikely to Have Votes for Override
By: Elaine S. Povich Source: AARP The Bulletin Date Posted:
WASHINGTON, Oct. 3—President Bush today vetoed a bill that would have expanded SCHIP (the State Children's Health Insurance Program) by $35 billion and covered 4 million more children—despite wide and deep congressional support. The veto set up a political confrontation over the popular program.
A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll showed that more than seven in 10 Americans supported the expansion of SCHIP. But Bush has remained adamantly opposed. Speaking today in Lancaster, Pa., he said, "Poor kids first. Secondly, I believe in private medicine, not the federal government running the health care system."
White House Press Secretary Dana Perino suggested that Congress sent the bill to the president to make a political point, knowing he would veto it (it is only the fourth veto of his presidency). She called on Congress and the president to sit down and work out a new version of the bill.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., did not seem to be in a compromising mood, despite knowledge that Congress does not appear to have enough votes to override the veto and that a negotiation may be looming.
Reid called it a "heartless veto. Never has it been clearer how detached President Bush is from the priorities of the American people," he said in a statement. "By vetoing a bipartisan bill to renew the successful Children's Health Insurance Program, President Bush is denying health care to millions of low-income kids in America."
A broad coalition of groups, including AARP and the American Medical Association, had called on Bush to sign the legislation. AARP said in a statement issued shortly after the veto that Bush "wrongly vetoed kid's health care legislation today. Unfortunately, the President rejected a bipartisan compromise package that would have improved the health care of millions of children. When 47 million Americans are already uninsured, this is not the time to jeopardize the coverage of our children."
In a letter sent to Bush last week, AARP and the AMA addressed his concern about government-funded health care. They pointed out that the program "is a public-private partnership in which 70 percent of kids get coverage through private insurers. It has the overwhelming support of the nation's governors, as well as America's Health Insurance Plans, [which] represent private insurers. In fact, the carefully crafted bipartisan compromise bill can even strengthen private-sector insurance because it allows states to use CHIP funds to help families purchase qualified employer-based coverage."
The Senate had approved a compromise bill to extend SCHIP to 4 million more children on a veto-proof vote of 67-29, including yeses from 18 Republicans. A broad coalition of House members also approved the bill on a 265-159 vote. But the majority vote fell short of the 290 needed to override the anticipated veto.
Several House Republicans voted for the SCHIP bill. Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., said he was a "little baffled" that the president picked a children's health insurance issue to draw a line in the sand. "Who's against kids' health care?" he said.
The program was begun in 1997 with a 10-year allocation of $40 billion and now covers about 6 million children. Each state sets its own eligibility rules. The compromise bill would have brought the number of children covered to about 10 million, children like Deamonte Driver of Prince George's County, Md., who died earlier this year after an abscessed tooth infection spread to his brain. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said $40 worth of dental care, which would be covered under the SCHIP expansion, would have saved his life.
Without action, the SCHIP program expires this year.
Initially, the House version of the SCHIP bill also included revisions to improve the Medicare program, but those changes were dropped in House-Senate negotiations that produced the compromise legislation. "Unfortunately, lawmakers dropped important provisions that would have made needed improvements to Medicare; failure to act on Medicare this year could result in negative consequences for millions," said AARP Government Relations Director David Sloane.
AARP urged Congress to revisit the Medicare issues to strengthen the program for low-income beneficiaries and keep premiums affordable. A reduction in excess payments to private insurance plans, AARP says, would prevent premium hikes and stop many doctors from leaving the program when cuts in payments to them go into effect in January.
Hoyer pledged to do just that. "We are absolutely committed to moving these provisions through the Congress, and intend to look for appropriate vehicles to do so," he said.
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