Editorial: Children’s health insurance

Friday, Aug. 3, 2007 | 7:28 a.m.

T oeing the Republican line to help private insurance companies, Nevada Sen. John Ensign tried to torpedo a bill to reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program this week.

The Senate has been debating a five-year extension of the program, which now covers 6.6 million poor children. The Senate's proposal boosts current spending by $35 billion and would add 3.2 million children to the program. The bill would pay for the increase by raising the tobacco tax.

As reported in the Las Vegas Sun by Lisa Mascaro on Thursday, Ensign proposed an amendment that would take money planned to fund the program and spend it on cancer research, which is a false choice. Can't Congress spend money on both?

Ensign, who supports tax incentives for people to buy insurance, is carrying the White House's water. The Bush administration says it will veto any increase of more than $5 billion, but backers of the Senate bill, which has received bipartisan support, say that would actually lead to program cuts because of the rising cost of insurance.

The House on Wednesday approved a plan that would increase the program by $50 billion, which includes a provision that would cut Medicare payments to insurance companies, but the vote came on partisan lines. Of Nevada's three members in the House, Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley voted for it and Republican Reps. Dean Heller and Jon Porter voted against it. That is a shame. Republicans shouldn't engage in partisan politics to try to stop this.

Ensign says he fears programs such as this would lead to socialized medicine, which is bogus. It is a plan to give poor children access to health care. How is that bad?