Gov. Lynch Joins Other Governors to Protect Children’s Insurance Program
GOVERNOR
New Hampshire Union Leader
Greg Hellman
Boston University Washington News Service
2/26/07
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 —New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch joined his colleagues from around the country in moving to protect a children’s health insurance program while attending the National Governors Association winter meeting.
If President Bush’s proposed funding levels are approved by Congress, more than 80 percent of children and their families in New Hampshire currently covered by the State Children’s Health Insurance Program would lose coverage, Gov. Lynch said during a telephone conference call Monday.
Currently, 7,400 children in the state are covered by the program, only 1,400 of whom would still qualify for coverage, he said. By contrast, Gov. Lynch previously proposed adding 10,000 children to the program over the next year. The program serves children in families that do not qualify for Medicaid but cannot afford health insurance.
“This is something that really has the governors concerned,” he said. “The impact is [those people] would lose eligibility.”
In his budget proposal presented three weeks ago, President Bush proposed maintaining the current level of funding of $5 billion per year for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, along with an additional allotment of $4.8 billion over the next five years. The governors argue that this is not enough to even maintain the current level of enrollment much less expand the program.
In response to the president’s proposal, 13 governors presented a letter on Saturday to leaders in Congress urging legislative action to protect the program, begun in 1997. Those governors continued on Monday to press for additional funding and reauthorization for the program.
“It’s much more difficult to take something away from someone rather than not give it to someone in the first place,” Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, one of the authors of the letter, said Monday at a governors association committee meeting focused on children’s health care.
“We want to work to make certain we’re taking care of the people you said you were going to pay,” Gov. Bredesen said to Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, who was a guest at the session.
Leavitt, however, argued the program is sustainable under the president’s funding proposal if it is restricted to only low-income children, rather than including their parents and higher income families. The program should be for children and not adults, Leavitt said. “It’s a very important program and we want to make sure low-income children have access to this and not necessarily others. Situations should be handled differently.”
Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), chairman of the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that would consider any proposals dealing with the children’s insurance program promised swift, bi-partisan action in obtaining more funding for the program, which is often referred to as SCHIP.
“We plan to move legislation that deals not only with the shortfall but that also reauthorizes SCHIP long term,” Pallone said. “All of the states have been moving to try to expand health insurance and you’re not going to be able to do that without a very robust SCHIP program.”
Gov. Lynch and other governors also met Monday morning at the White House with President Bush. Other concerns Gov. Lynch said were addressed at the conference included No Child Left Behind, the Iraq War and the REAL ID Act, which calls for a national identification card for all Americans.
“I am concerned about the REAL ID cost and privacy issues,” the governor said. “No one really knows what the implementation costs are. I don’t know one governor who’s ready to go through with this.”
He also expressed concerns over National Guard troop and equipment shortages in New Hampshire as a result of the war, but reiterated his support for the troops.
“We need to be very supportive of the troops,” Gov. Lynch said.
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