CHIP Stalls in Congress

None by KCPW

Backers Decide to Wait for Bush to Leave Office

(KCPW News) After months of wrangling, Senator Orrin Hatch and other supporters of expanding the children's health insurance program - or CHIP - have decided the barriers to success are too high. As KCPW's Julie Rose reports, they've decided to stall:

Supporters of expanding the children's health insurance program - or CHIP - have decided to wait until President Bush leaves office before trying again. The President already twice vetoed a bill that would have put 35-billion new dollars into CHIP over the next five years, covering an estimated 10-million children of the working poor.

The President and many conservative Republicans say the expansion was a move toward government-funded health care. Karen Crompton of Voices for Utah Children calls it a shame that political rhetoric stands in the way of health care for children.

Congress has agreed to keep funding CHIP at the current level until March of 2009, when it will reconsider the expansion.

Luckily, Crompton says Utah's CHIP program isn't yet filled to capacity, so local children won't suffer immediately from the delay. Crompton estimates 70-thousand uninsured children in Utah are eligible for health coverage under the program.

Email to a friendPosted in KCPW Newsroom, Legislative Coverage, and 2007 Legislative Coverage. Copyright 2008 KCPW