Bush Vetoes SCHIP Expansion Bill

The Senate approved the bill by a vote of 67 to 29, suggesting it could override the veto. The House vote approving the bill, 265 to 159, fell short of the two-thirds needed to overturn a veto, and Republicans there said they intend to ensure the bill does not become law.

“Republicans will sustain this veto so we can begin working toward a bipartisan renewal of SCHIP that helps states provide health care to low-income children,” said Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, House minority leader. “Democrats now face an important choice: Either work with Republicans to renew this program or continue to play politics on the backs of our nation’s children.”

Boehner, along with Republican Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., Energy & Commerce Committee Ranking Member Joe Barton, R-Texas, and Ways & Means Committee Ranking Member Jim McCrery, R-La., offered their own proposal for an SCHIP extension that would focus on low-income children. The program, they said, should not serve as a replacement for families with private coverage or coverage from other government programs, and should be focused on U.S. citizens.

Insurance industry groups expressed little surprise, but offered their continued support for the program.

“We will continue our efforts to ensure that any future SCHIP bill will take specific steps to improve the premium assistance process for states to voluntarily use SCHIP dollars to subsidize and leverage employer-sponsored coverage so that more families can be covered together at lower costs,” said Janet Trautwein, CEO of the National Association of Health Underwriters. She added that the group “believes the inclusion of premium assistance improvements will go a long way toward leveraging premium dollars employers are willing to contribute toward family coverage while helping to ease budgetary pressures on the program.”

Mohit Ghose, a spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, said, “We continue to support the Senate SCHIP legislation. And we encourage all parties to work together to find a way to reauthorize this critical program.”

The Campaign for America’s Future, an advocacy group supporting the SCHIP legislation, questioned the president’s reasoning for the veto.

“President Bush admits that this program works,” said the group’s co-director, Robert Borosage. “He knows that millions of children now go without adequate health care because their families can’t afford insurance, but he says he has an ‘ideological’ problem with expanding the program because it might provide coverage to children whose families might otherwise find a way to pay for private insurance. Legislators in both parties now must decide whether they stand with the president in defense of private insurance company profits or with children in need of health care. You wouldn’t think this was a hard choice.”