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Children's Health Insurance Bill Justified President's Veto

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 4, 2007

It's a pity those eager to bash President Bush are using the emotional appeal of health insurance for poor children as a political club.

The president may come off looking coldhearted, but he is right to oppose Congress' proposal to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program. His veto has kept Washington from expanding another entitlement program with no regard to the long-term consequences for taxpayers.

The bill seeks to expand the program from serving the children of the working poor to those of the middle class, creating another massive government expense without a stable funding source.

Cigarette taxes alone will not sustain a health program because cigarette smoking is declining - more than 22 million new smokers would be needed to fund the program over the next decade, the Heritage Foundation estimates.

Rep. Kathy Castor, who has championed the effort to provide health insurance to the children of the working poor, ended up opposing the bill. She thought it irresponsible because it weakened provisions that would ensure the program served the truly needy, it imposed damaging tax increases on the cigar industry and it failed to provide for adequate Medicare reimbursements for seniors.

Her stand had to be difficult. Castor's mother, former state lawmaker and education commissioner Betty Castor, pioneered Florida's child health-care program that became a model for the national effort. But Castor made the right call.

Congress still can extend the SCHIP - known in Florida as KidCare - for another year as it exists and return its focus to covering only children of the working poor and it should. Florida has some 750,000 uninsured children and the bigger issue here is that state lawmakers keep throwing up barriers to eligible children enrolling and might leave as much as $140 million in matching federal funds on the table for lack of enrollment.

But instead of focusing on the neediest children, Congress was aiming to expand the program to cover children from middle-class families - in some states those who earn more than $80,000 a year. It would also cover families who should have access to employer-sponsored plans. The $35 billion expansion was to be funded by increasing tobacco taxes from 39 cents a pack to $1 and boosting cigar taxes mightily.

Some 40,000 Americans and 750,000 cigar and tobacco industry workers in the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Nicaragua could lose their jobs if this industry was hit with excessive taxes. Oddly, this bill would hurt some of the very people it portends to support: factory workers trying to eke out a living. Congress should keep that in mind if it attempts a veto override.

Bush and the members of Congress who voted against this are taking a lot of flak for their stand, but they recognize this bill would be a costly drain on taxpayers, and that's no way to help families.

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