August 2, 2007
Senate Begins Debate on SCHIP Reauthorization 

Debate began July 31st on a bill now before the Senate that would reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which is set to expire next month. As expected, in hours of debate, Senators differed on whether the program that provides health insurance to children in working-poor families should be reined in or expanded, though all Senators who spoke favored continuing the program at some level. A bill reported by a large majority in the Senate Finance Committee last week calls for increasing federal spending for SCHIP by $35 billion over the next five years, to enable states to bring additional children into the program, while the Bush administration in its proposed budget for next year calls for an increase of only $5 billion over five years, which would limit SCHIP largely to children already being covered. In the Senate, the debate triggered questions about whether adults and parents should also be covered by SCHIP, and how high states should be allowed to set the income levels at which families are eligible for the program. It was also pointed out that there is wide diversity between states in the way SCHIP operates, as the result of waivers that have been granted to states by the federal Department of Health and Human Services. Debate on the bill is expected to continue all of this week.