Ramesh: I overstate the case, perhaps. I should have used the word “necessarily” or some such. The expansion of the program will be toward adults and into the realm of children whose families make more than 250 percent of the poverty level. This bill does not change eligibility requirements, but it would effectively dismantle the limits on this that were recently set in place recently by the administration.

SCHIP programs in various states will continue to reach out to poor children according to their criteria. It is possible that more money will mean they are more successful, but in fact, eligible children are not currently turned away from SCHIP because there isn’t enough money. The problem is that they are unaware or cannot be convinced to sign up.

The Bush administration’s new rules tell states that they can’t start insuring people over 250 percent until the state can prove that it is insuring 95 percent of those under 200 percent. No state can do that yet — Vermont comes closest with just under 90 percent. That means that most states are doing a bad job of reaching out to poor children. The better answer is to stick with the administration’s guidelines, not to give states more flexibility to insure wealthier children, up to 350 percent of the poverty level under this bill.

Or perhaps the solution proposed by Peter Ferrara: make it a block grant. Give states freedom to administer the program as they like, but give them only limited federal money.