SCHIP= State Children's Health Insurance Program
Provides block grants to states to supply health insurance for kids, originally kids in poor families.
SCHIP was originally bi-partisan, and for that matter still has bi-partisan support. Yes even the republicans support the original intent of the law. However, since the legislation was signed into law, states have applied for and received waivers that allow them to cover "kids" at higher income levels. Even this would be alright, but it is still not the whole story.
These waivers allowed states to get the low hanging fruit, and since SCHIP is a block grant, the states are covering these "kids" at 50% of the real dollar expense. In other words, the truly hard kids to find and cover will now just never be covered. Instead, states have opted to not do the dirty work of finding the hard to cover kids that SCHIP was originally intended to cover.
The current debate on Capitol Hill is about raising the income limits even higher, and paying for the expansion by increasing taxes, more specifically tabacco taxes. There are multiple problems with this plan. First, the higher the income level is raised the more people are pushed out of the private sector and into public assistance. Second, tabacco taxes are one of the most regressive of taxes, meaning that lower income people pay a higher portion of the tax. Third and most importantly, it will do nothing to assure that the low income children that the bill was originally intended to cover will actually receive coverage.
This is the truth. Not what you will hear it anyplace else.
For more visit my website Political Bear
Provides block grants to states to supply health insurance for kids, originally kids in poor families.
SCHIP was originally bi-partisan, and for that matter still has bi-partisan support. Yes even the republicans support the original intent of the law. However, since the legislation was signed into law, states have applied for and received waivers that allow them to cover "kids" at higher income levels. Even this would be alright, but it is still not the whole story.
These waivers allowed states to get the low hanging fruit, and since SCHIP is a block grant, the states are covering these "kids" at 50% of the real dollar expense. In other words, the truly hard kids to find and cover will now just never be covered. Instead, states have opted to not do the dirty work of finding the hard to cover kids that SCHIP was originally intended to cover.
The current debate on Capitol Hill is about raising the income limits even higher, and paying for the expansion by increasing taxes, more specifically tabacco taxes. There are multiple problems with this plan. First, the higher the income level is raised the more people are pushed out of the private sector and into public assistance. Second, tabacco taxes are one of the most regressive of taxes, meaning that lower income people pay a higher portion of the tax. Third and most importantly, it will do nothing to assure that the low income children that the bill was originally intended to cover will actually receive coverage.
This is the truth. Not what you will hear it anyplace else.
For more visit my website Political Bear
No comments:
Post a Comment