Oct 01, 2007

Baton Rouge Advocate - Bush’s veto threat affects LaCHIP expansion

Oct 1, 2007

Baton Rouge Advocate - Bush’s veto threat affects LaCHIP expansion

A fight in Washington, D.C., means Louisiana won’t be able to make health insurance available to more children in working families.

And the program that serves some 109,000 children today could suffer, as well, because of a deadlock between President Bush and the U.S. Congress. “It’s very disappointing,” said Gov. Kathleen Blanco.

Blanco criticized the Republican members of Louisiana’s congressional delegation for turning their backs on the state’s children and, instead, marching lock-step with Bush.

The stalemate means Louisiana won’t be able to move forward with plans to add 10,000 more children to the government health insurance program, state health chief Dr. Roxane Townsend said. And even if the program is reauthorized at its existing level, the state will have to scale back efforts to enroll more children because of funding restrictions, Townsend said.

The U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives last week approved compromise legislation that would expand the federal State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

But Bush said he would veto the legislation.

The program was scheduled to end Sunday; Congress temporarily extended the deadline.

Four of Louisiana’s five Republican congressmen voted against the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) when it passed the House last week: U.S. Reps. Richard Baker of Baton Rouge, Charles Boustany of Lafayette, Rodney Alexander of Quitman and Jim McCrery of Shreveport.

“They are afraid to have an independent thought, and that worries me on an issue that’s critical,” Blanco said .

The fifth, U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal, R-Kenner, “did not even bother to vote,” Blanco said. “He says he’s supportive of the effort, then dodges the vote.”

Jindal said he would have voted for the compromise if he had been in Washington, instead of running for governor.

In a telephone interview from the campaign trail Friday, Jindal said he would vote to override a Bush veto because he favors a program expansion.

“He’s wrong to veto,” said Jindal. “We should encourage more flexibility so people can get insurance from a multitude of sources. But it’s wrong to oppose efforts to expand to cover more children.”

Blanco said she was “appalled” that Boustany, a physician who is “straight out of the medical community, would not have a better understanding of this. There is no excuse for his vote.”

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt reiterated the administration’s stance in a telephone conference call with reporters on Friday.

“There’s no disagreement with the goal,” said Leavitt. “There is disagreement, however, on the path.”

Leavitt said the administration favors government coverage of children who live in homes with family incomes of up to double the federal poverty level — $40,000 for a family of four.

“It should be focused on low income and poor children,” Leavitt said.

Above the 200 percent level, he said, there should be alternatives to SCHIP to move people to the purchase of private insurance.

Double the federal poverty level is the financial cutoff for Louisiana’s program eligibility today. That program costs $146 million — $115 million of it is federal funds.

Louisiana wants to expand coverage to children in families with income up to three times the federal poverty level or $62,000 for a family of four.

The expansion proposal being shipped to Bush “motivates the movement of people insured in the private market to government insurance” and carries with it a $35 billion price tag, Leavitt said.

The proposed expansion would expand the number of American children covered from 6.6 million to 10 million.

The 2007 Louisiana Legislature, with Republican lawmakers going along, voted to expand the state’s children’s health insurance program to cover children in homes with family incomes of up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level. The expanded state program would require families to pay a portion of the insurance premium cost to enroll their children.

The Bush stance halts the Louisiana expansion, and that upsets Blanco.

“We are dealing with the reality. We know what’s going on at the grassroots level in our state,” said Blanco. “We know health insurance is becoming a luxury when it should be a basic right.”

Louisiana ranks 17th in the nation in providing health-care coverage to children, Blanco said.

Blanco said health-insurance costs are skyrocketing and fewer companies are offering health insurance to their employees.

Blanco said Bush and GOP congressmen who oppose the children’s health program expansion only help private insurance companies.

“It’s to protect the insurance companies,” she said. “Obviously people can’t afford it (health insurance) or they would have gotten it.”

Opponents, Blanco said, should realize how important adequate health insurance “is to Louisiana’s children to help them function better in school and then get a better education.”

Townsend said children are less expensive to cover. Health insurance gives children better access to immunizations against diseases and checkups that keep them healthier.

“If they are healthy, they are in school learning and parents have not missed work because of sick children,” Townsend said.

The Bush administration stance is forcing Louisiana’s children into the state’s charity hospital system, which Republicans are trying to shut down, Blanco said.

The Bush administration and federal health chief Leavitt have tried unsuccessfully to push Louisiana into using its federal healthcare dollars to buy private health insurance for the poor and uninsured.

The money for uninsured patient care today flows mainly to LSU’s charity hospital system.

“I think they are going to reauthorize (SCHIP), but what they are trying to do is cap your ability to grow. You are actually shrinking it,” she said.

Want the latest updates? Follow the DCCC on Facebook and Twitter: