Democrats’ Children’s Health Bill Covers Adults through FY 2012 Why are Democrats pushing adults to be covered under SCHIP when we haven’t even covered all eligible children? There are over 500,000 poor children eligible for SCHIP who are not covered. President Bush wants to make sure these eligible children are covered first, while Democrats support continuing SCHIP coverage to adults. Six states currently spend more SCHIP money on adults than children.
President Bush believes money intended for children should not be spent on adults, and his Administration is moving adults off of SCHIP and on to Medicaid now. The Democrats oppose this action and would put adults moved off SCHIP this year back on to the SCHIP program.
Under the Democrats’ SCHIP proposal, adults without children will be covered through FY 2009, and funding will be available to enroll new parents until the end of FY 2012.
President Bush’s plan is a reasonable expansion of SCHIP that focuses on covering poor children first. The Democrats’ plan to keep adults in the program is one more sign that they plan to use SCHIP as the first step toward government-run healthcare.
Nicholas Thompson
Office of Strategic Initiatives
The White House