Health funds for kids get priority

Washington —- House Democrats plan to give President-elect Barack Obama an early victory on health care, specifically children’s health care, next week.

Leaders say they are scheduling a vote on renewing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Unless Congress acts, the U.S. share of funding will expire March 31 for SCHIP, which funds federal-state joint initiatives such as Georgia’s PeachCare, the health insurance provider for 207,000 low-income children. PeachCare gets nearly three-quarters of its funding from SCHIP.

The legislation will look similar to bills the House and Senate twice approved in 2007. President George W. Bush balked at the additional $35 billion in spending in the two bills as well as the method of payment —- a tobacco tax. House Democrats could not muster enough support to overcome Bush’s two vetoes.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said lawmakers discussed whether to include reauthorization of SCHIP as part of an economic stimulus package or as a stand-alone bill. The growth of the stimulus package in recent weeks led to the decision to move ahead with the latter option.

Pelosi said she did not know if the bill would be ready for Obama’s signature on Inauguration Day, but she predicted “we’ll be done soon.”

“We don’t know if the Senate will act immediately. We hope that they would,” Pelosi said.

SCHIP provides health insurance for children in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance coverage. Nationwide, about 6 million children are enrolled.

A vote on renewing federal funding for the program is expected Tuesday or Wednesday, said Rep. Henry Waxman, the Democratic chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Waxman said several aspects of the bill have yet to be determined. For example, he did not know how long the program would be extended, but he said it would not be a full five years, as lawmakers sought in 2007. Nor did he know yet how much the tax on tobacco would be increased.

The bills in 2007 called for a 61-cent increase on a pack of cigarettes. At the time, lawmakers said they hoped the extra funding would help increase enrollment to about 10 million.

The children’s health legislation in 2007 had widespread support. The Senate had enough votes to overcome a veto, but the House fell about a dozen votes shy of obtaining the two-thirds majority needed.

Georgia’s delegation was particularly key in the vote, with all seven of its Republicans and one of its six Democrats, Rep. Jim Marshall of Macon, opposing the bill because of concerns about the size of the expansion, the use of tobacco taxes to fund it and the inclusion by some states, though not Georgia, of adults in the program.

Some opponents said they also feared it could be a first step to nationalized health care. Waxman said passing the bill would be a “down payment on national health insurance.”

During a news conference, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) did not commit to a specific time when the Senate would take up a children’s health bill, but he listed it as one of a handful of priorities that chamber would consider early in the session.

Bruce Lesley, president of First Focus, a children’s advocacy group, said the bill will likely contain a provision that would remove a five-year waiting period for enrolling children of legal immigrants into SCHIP. He also said state officials want Congress to work quickly to renew the program, an argument against waiting for an economic stimulus package.

“They want to get this done and signed into law so states can have some certainty about what the SCHIP program will look like,” Lesley said.

Dr. Rhonda Medows, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Community Health, which runs PeachCare, welcomed the planned vote.

“The reauthorization of SCHIP now would make a powerful statement from Congress and the new president about their commitment to working families in need of health care coverage,” Medows said.

A federal renewal of SCHIP, though, won’t remove the severe budget pressure affecting the 10-year-old PeachCare program, Georgia officials say.

The current deficit for Georgia Medicaid and PeachCare is $208 million, which has triggered new funding proposals that state lawmakers will consider in this year’s General Assembly.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution staff writer Andy Miller contributed to this article.