Opinion: SCHIPs are for kids

Monday, October 01, 2007

By U.S Senator Mike Enzi

ffluent families. No kidding.

Wyoming uses its federal SCHIP funds to cover poor children. We are continually trying to reach more who are eligible, but the money we aren’t able to use yet, we send back to the program. But the Democratically controlled Congress is trying to help New Jersey by expanding the SCHIP so more states could use this funding to cover people who don’t fit the bill under the original program.

Every child in America should have health insurance and access to quality health care. We should renew SCHIP and keep it strong. The alternative SCHIP legislation I support fully funds and strengthens the current SCHIP program, increasing its strength to nearly $40 billion during the next five years. It targets kids in families that don’t qualify for Medicaid, but can’t afford to get health insurance on their own, so they can receive the care they need. I object, however, to watering down funding for children’s health care by allowing parents and adults without kids access to an additional $20 billion in funding on top of the $40 billion I support for continuing and enhancing the original program. Children should get the funding first.

New Jersey is the sponge that is leading the way toward soaking up every cent of federal money in the program. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, that state’s governor has declared that New Jersey would unilaterally disregard the program’s rules and “vigorously continue” to enroll at three and a half times the federal poverty line. That’s the highest ceiling in the country at about $80,000 per year for a family of four. Wyoming enrolls at 200 percent of the poverty amount or about $41,000. New Jersey is doing this even though about 119,000 of its children under 200 percent of the poverty line remain uninsured. The state already spends 43 percent of its yearly SCHIP grant insuring adults. This is what we can expect if the plan pushed by the majority party becomes law.

The President said he would veto the expansion bill being pushed by the majority party. I will vote to sustain his veto should I have the opportunity.

The SCHIP allotments to Wyoming are increased by both the alternative bill I support and the massive expansion proposed by others, but the difference is small. In both bills, the numbers for Wyoming are nearly the same even though the overall spending – $40 billion versus $60 billion - is not. The proposal I support would allot Wyoming $19.6 million in FY 2008. The other bill would allot Wyoming $200,000 more. Twenty billion dollars is a lot to pay for $200,000.

By working with private insurance companies, Wyoming has built a very efficient system to provide high quality care to all of those enrolled. Families also share in the cost of their children’s health care by paying co-payments for services used.

Children enrolled in the program receive a wide range of benefits, including inpatient and outpatient hospital, lab and X-ray, prescription drugs, mental health and substance abuse, dental and vision. As of March 1, 2007, there were 5,507 children enrolled in Kid Care CHIP. It is estimated that there are an additional 6,000 uninsured children in the state at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty line that could be eligible, but they are not enrolled.

We must work to get more poor children in Wyoming the help they need. We should help other children in need across the country get the health care they deserve, but we should do it before we start using SCHIP money to cover middle class adults. The people of Wyoming should not foot the bill for someone in another state making over $80,000, while our own children lack the care they need. It’s not right.


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