LAKE COUNTY — The U.S. House of Representatives voted Wednesday to uphold President George W. Bush”s second veto of a bill that would reauthorize the State Children”s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
Congressman Mike Thompson”s (D ? Calif.) office reported Wednesday that the House”s effort to override the president”s second veto of the bill got only 260 votes, short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto. The bill was vetoed for the first time in October 2007, with an override effort failing by 13 votes.
According to a statement from White House Press Secretary”s office, “President Bush strongly supports reauthorizing SCHIP in a way that puts poor children first, so he is pleased the House of Representatives voted today to sustain his veto of misguided legislation that would have expanded SCHIP to higher income households while increasing taxes.”
Thompson said Friday that the proposed $35 billion spending increase proposed to cover an additional six million families would be completely funded by an increase to the per-pack cigarette tax. “We”re going to continue to use that as a revenue source to pay for it,” Thompson said. “Not only does the increase in the tax pay for it (SCHIP), but it has the added impact of reducing the amount of people who smoke. That in itself would be a health care cost savings.”
“Ultimately our goal should be to move children who have no health insurance to private coverage ? not to move children who already have private insurance to government coverage,” according to the White House Press Secretary”s office”s Jan. 23 release.
“Whoever is saying that, they themselves are smoking, and it”s not cigarettes,” Thompson said. “That”s clouded thinking. We need to provide health care to kids, and this program has a great track record. Forty-two governors support it, as well as health care organizations, and it gets kids covered ? and that”s what”s most important. Eighty-four percent of Americans people support this.”
Funding the children”s health care program in the event of a decrease in demand for cigarettes will be a long-term issue, according to Thompson. “I”m willing to deal with the shortfall when that happens,” Thompson said. As for the claim that the expansion would extend SCHIP to higher income families, Thompson said the bill”s language was strengthened further this year to clarify that is not the case.
Healthy Families, California”s version of SCHIP, serves 1,700 children in Lake County, according to Thompson”s office. The program provides low-cost medical, dental and vision services for children whose families make too much to qualify for Medi-Cal.
A family of four including the parent or parents with children between the ages of one and five no longer qualifies for Medi-Cal once the family”s income reaches approximately $27,480 annually. Healthy Families would stand in the gap if an application was approved and cover the family”s children until its income reached $51,636.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the 2004 average household income in Lake County was $32,757, well below the state average of $49,894.
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