Bush Administration Actions Tie Hands Of States

"The children's health insurance program was created in 1997 in abipartisan effort, under a Democratic President andRepublican-controlled Congress, to find state-based solutions to theproblem of providing health care for low-income children," saidDeGette. "Our goal was to provide additional resources for states tocover more kids who needed health care coverage. Unfortunately, theBush Administration has used it as a political football to score pointsat the expense of millions of low-income children."

Despite two bipartisan compromise State Children Health InsuranceProgram (SCHIP) bills passing Congress, President George W. Bush hasblocked progress by vetoing both of them. If the current trendscontinue of increasing premiums for employer-based coverage, morechildren will join the ranks of the uninsured while the BushAdministration places additional barriers to health care for low-incomechildren in valuable programs such as SCHIP and Medicaid.

"The whole reason we give states flexibility in SCHIP and Medicaid isbecause they craft programs that best meet the needs of their ownpopulations. However, the Bush Administration continues to hand downdirectives tying the hands of our states – a number of recent Centersfor Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regulations hinder stateflexibility. For example, an August 17th directive limits states'ability to cover children in families above 250% of the federal povertylevel. Although my state of Colorado does not currently cover childrenabove this level, we have set the goal of covering all uninsuredchildren by the end of 2010. Without the flexibility to cover childrenabove 250% of the poverty level, it is unlikely that we can make this areality."

The August 2007 directive mandates that in order to expand coveragelevels above 250% of the federal poverty level, states must meet a 95%participation rate for children below 250% of the federal povertylevel. This standard is completely unattainable and unrealistic. CMSdoes not provide guidance for states on to how to meet such standardsor even what data will be used to calculate a 95% compliance rate. TheCMS rule is expected to go into effect in May 2008.