SCHIP

NYT reported The Bush administration, continuing its fight to stop states from expanding the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program, has adopted new standards that would make it much more difficult for New York, California and others to extend coverage to children in middle-income families.

Good for him. Middle income families should be able to pay for their own insurance.

Administration officials outlined the new standards in a letter sent to state health officials on Friday evening, in the middle of a month-long Congressional recess. In interviews, they said the changes were aimed at returning the Children’s Health Insurance Program to its original focus on low-income children and to make sure the program did not become a substitute for private health coverage.

Which is what it was supposed to be. Not a backdoor way to get us into a single payer insurance system like Canada has, where they can't afford neonatal services for babies

After learning of the new policy, some state officials said today that it could cripple their efforts to cover more children by imposing standards that could not be met..... The poverty level for a family of four is $20,650 in annual income. New York now covers children in families with income up to 250 percent of the poverty level. The State Legislature has passed a bill that would raise the limit to 400 percent of the poverty level — $82,600 for a family of four — but the change is subject to federal approval.

Why should tax payers in the 49 other states pay the insurance bill for a New York family making $82,600.

California wants to increase its income limit to 300 percent of the poverty level, from 250 percent. Pennsylvania recently raised its limit to 300 percent, from 200 percent. New Jersey has had a limit of 350 percent for more than five years.

That is ridiculous

As on other issues like immigration, the White House is taking action on its own to advance policies that were not embraced by Congress.

A republican President taking action that is not embraced by a Democratic Congress? Maybe that is what the Founding Fathers planned for when they set up the checks and balances of our system.

.... In the letter sent to state health officials about 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Dennis G. Smith, the director of the federal Center for Medicaid and State Operations, set a high standard for states that want to raise eligibility for the child health program above 250 percent of the poverty level. Before making such a change, Mr. Smith said, states must demonstrate that they have “enrolled at least 95 percent of children in the state below 200 percent of the federal poverty level” who are eligible for either Medicaid or the child health program. Deborah S. Bachrach, a deputy commissioner in the New York State Health Department, said, “No state in the nation has a participation rate of 95 percent.”

Then shouldn't you focus your attention on children that are really in poverty, rather than having the government pay for children in families earning $80K?