Dems may override Bush on kid insurance

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - Democrats may try to override a decision by President Bush to leave stopgap children's health insurance money out of his 2007 emergency war spending proposal.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) asked the president last week to propose $745 million in supplemental spending for the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, which primarily covers children in low-income working families.

Bush declined the lawmakers' request in the $93 billion emergency war spending proposal he submitted Monday to cover the remainder of 2007. But Democrats, eager to show policy differences with the White House, are saying they may add the $745 million when the bill comes up in the coming weeks.

"It's certainly an option," said Drew Hammill, a Pelosi spokesman. "We know the states are running out of money on this. We're exploring all options."

If allocated, the new money would keep 14 states with looming shortfalls from having to cut off coverage until Congress renews the program later this year.

Georgia, for example, insures some 273,000 children under its PeachCare program but could be forced to end coverage in just a few weeks. Iowa's Hawk-I plan, which insures more than 30,000 children, expects to exhaust its budget by the end of June.

"We are putting the health coverage of thousands of Americans in jeopardy," Reid, D-Nev., and Pelosi , D-Calif., wrote in a letter to Bush on Friday. "The cost of filling the funding shortfall is minor in comparison to your other emergency requests."

The move could get significant backing from Republicans, particularly those from states with shortfalls.

"That's certainly something I could support," said Sen. Johnny Isakson (news, bio, voting record), a Georgia Republican. "That would help Georgia."

Dennis Smith, director of Center for Medicaid and State Operations, defended the administration's omission by saying Bush has called instead for forcing states with SCHIP surpluses to give up unspent money more quickly to help states with deficits.

"We proposed a solution," Smith said. "There's plenty of money. It's just in different places."

States — and their representatives in Congress — have strongly resisted giving up surplus money, arguing that they will need it as participation grows and federal budgets tighten.

According to the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, while some states still don't spend their full individual allotments, state spending overall has outstripped federal funding in recent years. So the pool of unspent money is quickly shrinking.

SCHIP insures some 6 million people nationwide and is aimed at working families who make too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance.

Along with Georgia and Iowa, states facing shortfalls are Alaska, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.

Congress passed a temporary fix before adjourning last year, redistributing some unspent money. The federal government released the first installment of that money this week, but state officials say it buys only a few months at best.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070207/ap_on_go_co/bush_children_s_health [link]