Sun Editorial:

Children denied coverage

Not satisfied with stopping expansion of federal program, Bush limits Medicaid

Monday, Jan. 7, 2008 | 2 a.m.

The Bush administration, which has opposed expansion of a federal health insurance program for poor children, is now restricting states’ efforts to expand Medicaid eligibility requirements in order to cover the same category of children.

The federal government and states jointly fund Medicaid, which provides health care coverage for poor families. States administer the program and generally set their own eligibility requirements.

However, The New York Times reports, in negotiations with federal officials the past few weeks Medicaid officials in Louisiana, Ohio and Oklahoma have discovered that the Bush administration is not going to allow states to expand Medicaid coverage to include children whose families earn modest incomes but still cannot afford private insurance.

Last year Congress twice tried to extend coverage to the same group by expanding the federally funded State Children’s Health Insurance Program, and each time President Bush vetoed an expansion.

On Dec. 20 the Bush administration rejected a proposal from Ohio to expand its Medicaid coverage of children. Federal Medicaid officials told the Times the denial was based on an August directive from Bush that says states cannot expand their Medicaid programs until they have enrolled 95 percent of the children in families that earn less than $41,300 annually. That amount is twice the federal poverty level for a family of four.

At the time the directive was issued, state health officials said 95 percent enrollment has never been attained by any state and is virtually impossible to achieve.

Bush’s restrictions on the SCHIP program and now Medicaid have not changed the fact that American families that are barely earning enough money to buy food and keep a roof over their heads cannot obtain health coverage for their children.

The president is quite adept at denying medical coverage to this country’s poor families, but has not been able to offer them a single realistic solution for obtaining it.