Children's Health Insurance Expansion Gathering Stream

Some good news about chidren's health isnurance. Congress appears to be moving ahead quickly on a reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Plan, which covers 6.7 million poor and low-income children nationwide and will expire in March.

President Bush twice vetoed expansions of the program that passed Congress with broad bipartisan support in 2007, saying they cost too much and expanded the program beyond its mission to serve as a last-resort option for the poorest kids.

A quick vote could provide momentum for President-elect Barack Obama, who supports the program and campaigned on a proposal to require all children to have some form of health insurance. Congress is not moving nearly so quickly to embrace the economic stimulus proposals Obama wants passed.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus today released an outline of his $31.5 billion, 4.5-year proposal, which he said his committee would take up tomorrow. The House is considering its own version.

Baucus's proposal would provide health insurance to 3.9 million additional uninsured, low-income children. The expansion would be paid for by increasing the cigarette tax by 61 cents to $1 a pack. The money would help expand the program at a time when states, which pick up a portion of the costs, are under serious budget constraints and the unemployment rate is at its highest level in 16 years.

"The Children's Health Insurance Program is needed now more than ever," Baucus said in a statement. "In these tough economic times, more and more parents can't afford health coverage for their kids. But CHIP can get uninsured, low-income kids the doctors visits and medicines they need to stay healthy." Baucus's bill does not lift a ban on Medicaid and SCHIP for children and pregnant women who are legal immigrants during their first five years in the country, but he said he looks forward to discussing how to do that as the bill moves toward final approval. The House wants to include such a provision, as the Wall Street Journal reported this morning.