By Kenneth J. Theisen, 8/25/07
The Bush administration has issued new guidelines that will
leave children without health insurance in many cases. The new guidelines from the Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services will require children in many states to be
uninsured for a full year before they have access to government-subsidized
coverage through the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). SCHIP provides a government subsidy for the
cost of health insurance for families whose incomes are too high to qualify for
Medicaid (a government-paid health program) but too low to buy private health
insurance. Waiting periods have been imposed to prevent families from dropping
private coverage and then enrolling in SCHIP.
But until now, only Alaska
had a one-year waiting period. Several
states had no waiting period and many had a one to six-month wait. Under the
new guidelines, the one-year waiting period will apply only in states which
extend SCHIP coverage to additional moderate income families, in effect
penalizing states for trying to make health insurance affordable to more
families. This will impact approximately 20 states and the families within them.
And there are no exceptions. Someone who
lost a job and thus health insurance, or even a family where the insured parent
has died, would be in the same situation as the one who voluntarily dropped
their private health insurance to switch to SCHIP. And the real penalty will be
paid by the children, not the state or the parents.
It is likely that the administration issued these guidelines
at this time to send a message to Congress and the states. Both the Senate and
the House have recently passed bills that expand SCHIP and increase spending on
the program. After the summer recess, a conference bill will likely emerge and
go to the president for signature. But President Bush has repeatedly stated
that he will veto the legislation if it reaches his desk. His regime views
government-subsidized health care as a form of “socialized medicine” and any
expansion of government health care coverage has been repeatedly opposed by his
administration.