Senate expected to pass children’s health insurance bill

Washington, January 29: President Obama’s promise to ensure health insurance for every child in the country is well on its way to fruition as the Senate is anticipated to approve a new bill that will give health insurance to 11 million children from low-income families.

The new bill is an expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which currently costs $25 million and provides health insurance to an estimated 7 million children who are living near poverty level and are not otherwise eligible for coverage under Medicaid.

With the new bill, an extra cost of $32 billion will be needed over the course of 4½ years, which will benefit an additional 4 million children.

In order to fund the additional cost needed to increase the number of children covered by health insurance, it is proposed that the cigarette tax will be increased by 61 cents each pack.

Senator Debbie Stabenow (Democrat) stated: "This bill will make a real difference in the lives of children and families across America and is a great way to start the New Year. I am very pleased to be a part of this and to know that we have a president who will enthusiastically and quickly sign this bill as one of his first actions."

According to the proponents of the bill (Democrats), healthcare should be given urgent attention, especially with the current state of the economy. However, opponents (Republicans) argue that this legislation does not adhere to the program’s original intention of providing health needs to underprivileged children.

In 2007, the Republicans agreed, together with the Democrats, to expand the Children’s Health Insurance Program but they do not agree with certain provisions of the current bill being passed; such as allowing children of legal immigrants to enroll without having to go through the five-year waiting period, and allowing children from families earning as much as $60,000 per year to enroll.

Senator Pat Roberts (Republican) said, “This is not the bill we intended.”

In order to please both parties, Senator Orrin Hatch (Republican) suggested that states should require 95 percent of native-born children to be enrolled in the program first before opening it to immigrants’ children. He said, "Our U.S. citizen children should be covered first."

But Senator Max Baucus (Democrat) still argued, "Those kids come from low-income families with parents that work hard and pay taxes just like citizens. And, those kids need checkups and prescriptions just like all other CHIP kids."