Editorial: Picking on children

Friday, Aug. 24, 2007 | 7:41 a.m.

The Bush administration staunchly opposes Congress' intention to expand a federally funded health insurance program that provides coverage for children of working families who cannot afford private insurance.

The Bush administration waited until after Congress had recessed last Friday and issued a new policy that sets what state health officials say are impossible eligibility standards that severely limit efforts to cover more children.

The State Children's Health Insurance Program expires Sept. 30. The House and Senate have approved legislation to renew the program for five years and to increase funding so that more children could be enrolled. President Bush has promised to veto the legislation.

Eligibility for SCHIP is based on the federal poverty level, which is set at an annual income of $20,650 for a family of four. Several states have federal permission to offer coverage to children whose families earn more than twice that amount.

According to a story by The New York Times on Tuesday, Pennsylvania, for example, provides the coverage to children in families whose incomes are 300 percent of the poverty level. New Jersey has, for five years, covered children in families with incomes of 350 percent of the poverty level. California has proposed raising the cap to 300 percent.

But Bush's new rule places strict conditions on states seeking to raise eligibility levels to families earning more than 250 percent of the poverty level, or $51,625.

To do that now, states first must enroll at least 95 percent of the children from families with incomes below 200 percent of the poverty level into SCHIP or into the federal Medicaid program.

But health officials say no state has ever attained 95 percent participation among low-income families. One health policy researcher told the Times that "no state would ever achieve that level of participation" under Bush's policy.

That's because Bush doesn't intend to increase health coverage for children. In his warped view, parents just use the federal program to avoid buying private insurance never mind that these are families who can barely make ends meet and have no money for such coverage. The fact that Bush passed this dreadful policy in a back-door manner shows that it not only takes a bully but also a coward to do this to children.