Washington (CNSNews.com) – Senate Republicans say expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) amounts to an attempt by congressional Democrats to socialize the nation’s health-care system.
“One could certainly conclude that,” Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), said in response to questions from CNSNews.com. “This is yet one more way to get people off of private coverage and onto government coverage so that little by little you eventually end up with a majority of people on government coverage.”
SCHIP, or the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, is a joint federal-state program designed to provide healthcare coverage to children whose parents cannot afford private coverage.
The latest expansion of SCHIP, spearheaded by congressional Democrats, will put between 25 and 50 percent of new enrollees, mostly middle-income children, onto the federal dole -- children who currently are covered under private insurance, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) said the version of the bill currently under consideration in the Senate does not contain income caps that would have kept moderate- and middle-income Americans from taking advantage of a program that Republicans say was originally designed to help the poor.
“I voted for the original SCHIP bill,” Bunning told CNSNews.com. “But I haven’t voted for the expansions because they have always taken away from the original intent of the bill, to cover people with (income) less than 200 percent of poverty.”
“I can’t support anything that will do that,” Sen. Bunning declared.
Republicans in the Senate say they were supportive of the original SCHIP bill, as drafted by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), because its goal has been to provide basic health coverage to poor children, but opposed the expansion to those who don’t need it.
“The Republican goal is that every low-income child should have health insurance, we want that to happen,” Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) explained.
Alexander said that Republicans were prepared to fight over the future of SCHIP, offering amendments to return the program to its original purpose.
“I expect there to be Republican amendments to try to restore the bill,” he said. “A large number of Republicans voted for it, (and) we’d like to vote for it again. We’ll offer amendments to see if we can fashion a health insurance bill that meets the objectives that we voted for last time.”
Kyle, the Senate Republican Whip and a member of the Senate Finance Committee, also promised action to contain Democratic expansions of SCHIP
“We’re going to try to do something about (it),” Kyl told CNSNews.com before heading into the Senate chamber.
Kyl was puzzled why Democrats stripped language that would have capped entry into the program at 300 percent of poverty -- approximately $63,000 per year for a family of four.
“We addressed this (issue) last year, they wrote the language, they voted for it, and then they took it out of this bill. I said ‘at least put your own language back in’ (but) they didn’t want to do that,” Kyl said.
“You’ll have to ask them why they’re not interested in addressing that.”
SCHIP even came in for criticism from GOP moderates like Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who said that while the bill will pass, it just goes too far.
“This bill’s going to pass, there’s no question about it,” Gregg said. “The way this is structured it will cause people to opt out of private insurance, forcing taxpayers to pick up a cost the otherwise wouldn’t have to pay.”
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), meanwhile, said congressional Democrats want to “increase Medicare, increase the number of people who are covered under SCHIP and just work toward the middle and pretty much have nationalized healthcare.”
A bill to expand SCHIP is currently on the Senate floor. It passed the House of Representatives on Jan. 13.