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Oct 9, 2007

The Buffalo News - Bush wrong on the facts

The State Children’s Health Insurance Program bill that President Bush describes and the one he vetoed are two very different things. The one Bush rails against exists only in his imagination. In his imagination, and in the press releases of a few too many Republican members of Congress.

The bill Bush actually vetoed, the one that Western New York Reps. Thomas M. Reynolds and Randy Kuhl stand ready to let die, is a reasonable, needed and bipartisan creation supported by many elected officials who would never support the kind of socialized medicine for the rich that the White House disingenuously derides.

The renewal and expansion of SCHIP, which could extend health insurance coverage to 10 million children who now lack this basic of a decent life, would cost $35 billion over five years. To attack that as a budget-buster when the Treasury is bleeding funds for one of the most foolishly fought wars in human history would be laughable if it were not destined to cause real pain to real neighbors of yours.

Bush and his allies describe SCHIP as “government-run health care.” That is a false statement.

SCHIP is government-assisted health insurance. Children who are covered under the plan have the state they live in pay some, most or all, depending on their family income, of the premiums for basic health insurance that they buy from recognized, private health insurance companies. Families select the doctors and hospitals they will use, with no less freedom of choice than most other people.

The families of the 16,000 children who are now covered by SCHIP in Erie and Niagara counties choose among three plans — HealthNow, Fidelis Care and Univera. Those are names familiar to anyone who has shopped for his own health care, and a wider choice than is available to many who have workplace-provided insurance.

Under the existing rules, SCHIP covers nearly 400,000 New York children at an annual cost to taxpayers of some $672 million — about half in federal funds and half from state coffers. A family of four gets it free if its monthly income is no more than $2,753. Households with a little more income might contribute premiums of up to $45 a month. Families that make too much for the subsidy — $4,303 a month for four people — are on their own.

Another red herring in the debate is that the vetoed version of SCHIP would provide subsidies for families making upwards of $80,000 a year. That is also a false statement.

New York State, claiming that both insurance costs and the cost of living generally are excessive around here, asked for federal permission to raise the income limit that much, but was rebuffed. The vetoed bill would set the upper limit at $60,000 a year, enough to add another 268,000 children to the rolls in New York.

Such Republican stalwarts as Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah, Charles Grassley of Iowa and Pat Roberts of Kansas support the vetoed bill and openly wonder if the president has read the measure he so strongly criticizes. Probably, he has not.

We still can’t figure out what excuse Reynolds and Kuhl have.