The stakes for California are huge as one of the first major bills makes its way through Congress.
President George W. Bush twice vetoed expansion of the federal-state partnership called the State Children's Health Insurance Program; President Barack Obama has promised to sign it.
California runs the largest SCHIP program in the country and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has led governors in support of expansion. The program covers 891,000 California children, more than the combined total in New York and Texas.
SCHIP covers children of working parents who do not get insurance through their jobs and cannot afford to buy it on their own. It gives parents a choice of private health plans for their children and requires premium payments and co-pays based on ability to pay.
The expansion bill (H.R. 2/S. 275) would preserve coverage for 6.7 million children already enrolled and add 3.9 million more (by increasing the federal tax on cigarettes from 39 cents to $1 per pack).
The Sacramento region already benefits from SCHIP and would benefit from expansion. Peter Harbage, a consultant doing research for the California Healthcare Foundation, has provided The Bee with a breakdown by congressional district:
• District 5, Sacramento (Doris Matsui): 15,019 children covered by SCHIP as of November 2008; the bill would cover about 3,200 more.
• District 4, including El Dorado, Nevada, Placer and part of Sacramento County (Tom McClintock): 10,154 children are covered; the bill would cover 2,600 more.
• District 3, including Citrus Heights, Folsom, Carmichael, Fair Oaks, Rancho Cordova (Dan Lungren): 10,901 children are covered; the bill would cover 2,400 more.
• District 2, including Yuba County, part of Yolo County (Wally Herger): 19,522 children are covered; the bill would cover 4,500 more.
• District 1, including West Sacramento, Yolo County (Mike Thompson): 16,138 children are covered; the bill would cover 3,700 more.
The bill would cover 16,400 more children in these five districts, leaving about 45,600 uninsured – a task for another day.
The House overwhelmingly voted for HR2 last week – Matsui and Thompson for; McClintock, Herger and Lungren against.
The Senate votes next week, with California Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein supporting the bill.
Though the bill leaves about 5 million children uncovered, it is a down payment on Obama's campaign pledge that "affordable, universal health care for every single American must not be a question of whether, it must be a question of how."
Obama notes that "some may ask how, at this moment of economic challenge, we can afford to invest in reforming our health care system. Well, I ask a different question – I ask how we can afford not to."
As Congress and president work on details for expanding health coverage to all Americans, we'd like to see our local delegation make a constructive difference.
As the SCHIP program has shown, health coverage makes a big difference in the lives of working families.
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.