WASHINGTON — President Bush and other critics of a $35 billion spending increase for children's health insurance say they'll support expanding coverage to families of four making as much as $62,000 a year, but they want to limit states' ability to go beyond that level.
About three dozen states ignore certain income when determining who can get governmentsubsidized health coverage. For example, many states exclude child-support payments. Others deduct expenses for child care when determining who qualifies for the State Children's Health Insurance Program.
Congress is considering the renewal of the program for an additional five years, but differences remain over who the program should cover and how much money should be spent. The flexibility that states have in defining income is one of the differences that will probably need to be resolved for Democrats to override a promised veto from Bush.
The health program covers families who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to afford private insurance. States determine eligibility, with most states covering children with incomes at twice the federal poverty level - $41,300 for a family of four. About 18 states cover children above that threshold or have plans to do so.
At the White House on Monday, spokesman Dana Perino said President Bush's negotiators have been meeting with Republican congressional leaders - but not Democrats - about the children's health insurance legislation.
"I think they offered, and I don't think the meeting was accepted," Perino said of the White House's overture to leaders of the Democratic majority. Asked if any meetings with Democrats were planned, she said: "I don't think they want to meet with us. I think that's the point. They haven't taken us up on the offer."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said that Democratic lawmakers will be glad to talk to Bush, and have tried to do so.
"Anytime the president wants to sit down - and we have invited him over and over again in a bipartisan way - sit down and talk about covering 10 million children, then we are pleased to have that conversation with him," Pelosi said at an event in Miami.
So far, the issue of "income disregards" has received little attention, but that started to change in last week's debate on the House floor.
"You leave it up to the states to say you can't have an income level over 300 percent [of poverty], but you can deduct $20,000 for a housing allowance or you can deduct $15,000 for shelter or whatever," said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas. "So, what you've got here is the classic bait and switch."
Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., said that allowing states to exempt some income helps to ensure that low-income families don't have to resort to welfare to get health care for their children.
Another disagreement over the program's future is over the coverage of adults, even though the Bush administration approved most of the waivers that allowed adults into the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Now, the administration wants to remove those adults from program rolls more quickly than called for in the bill that passed the House last week.
Under that bill, states would have to move an estimated 200,000 childless adults off the program within one year. Also, by 2010, waivers covering about 500,000 parents would be paid from a separate fund. States that perform well on covering lowincome children could continue covering parents through that fund, which would get a lower federal matching rate than undercurrent policy, Dingell said.
Just last year, administration officials testified during congressional hearings that extending program coverage to parents increased the likelihood that their children would get health insurance, too. But Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt now calls the coverage of parents an experiment that took resources away from poor kids. About a dozen states received waivers to coverparents through the program.
"All adults should be moved off SCHIP when their state waivers come up for renewal or within one year, whichever comes sooner," said a policy statement issued by the White House last week.
The bill that passed the House on Thursday would allow about 3.9 million more uninsured children into the program by 2012 - on top of the 6 million now enrolled. An additional 2 million children would leave private coverage by then and enroll in the program, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The president had recommended spending an additional $5 billion for the program over the next five years. The bipartisan bill before Congress calls for a $35 billion increase, bringing total spending to $60 billion.
The administration announced last week that it could support policies that require more money than it previously recommended. Still, Leavitt cited about $10 billion that he believes should be trimmed from the bill before Congress.
The administration remains adamant that it won't support a tobacco tax increase to pay for the State Children's Health Insurance Program's expansion. Instead, it's calling on lawmakers to pick from $96 billion worth of new fees or spending cuts that were part of the president's budget this fiscal year. However, most of those proposals generated little support in Congress.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 10/30/2007