CHIP Passes Senate, Headed for Bush Veto

None by KCPW

Senator Hatch Continues Fight for Children's Health Care

(KCPW News) A bi-partisan compromise to fund health insurance for poor children is headed for the President's veto pen, despite the best efforts of Utah Senator Orrin Hatch. President Bush says the 35-billion dollar price tag on the CHIP funding bill is too high. Hatch managed to convince a majority in the House and Senate that it's not:

"What bothers me is that we spend about 1.9 trillion dollars in health care - one trillion in the private sector and about 900-billion in the public sector," says Hatch. "Here we're asking for 60 billion dollars out of that to help the kids that are left out of this program."

The state-run Children's Health Insurance Program will expire on September 30th. Hatch helped create the program ten years ago and has worked for months to convince his conservative colleagues that CHIP is not a move toward socialized medicine. He addressed the argument once again during his speech on the Senate floor:

"Then we have th eargument this is leading to one-sized-fits-all, government-mandated, socialized health care," says Hatch. "I think you can make that argument on anything we do on health care around here that involves government. I don't want to go to that. But on the other hand I don't want to leave these kids high and dry either."

About six million children are currently covered by CHIP. Several million more youngsters will get basic health care with the new funding. Lawmakers plan to cover the 35-billion dollar increase with a 61-cent tax hike on cigarettes. The bill passed with a veto-proof majority in the Senate, but not the House.

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