SCHIP Bill Passes In Senate, Texas Senators Split On Vote

Only slightly amended from a companion House bill passed earlier, Senate Democrats and nine Republicans passed the measure today.

WASHINGTON, DC, Jan. 29, 2009 -- The Democrat plan to reauthorize and expand the federal government's role in insuring children, the State's Childrins's Health Insurance Plan (SCHIP), passed the US Senate today 66-32, and will head back over to the House next week for what is expected to be final passage.

Owing to the small amount of tinkering senators did on the bill, swift passage in the House is almost assured. With the backing of President Obama pledged earlier, Democrats should soon be able to announce that one of Obama's key campaign promises has already been kept.

Texas' two Republican senators, Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, parted ways on the vote, with Hutchison voting for the bill and Cornyn voting against.

In a press release today, Hutchison said “Texas has the highest rate of uninsured children in the nation. I voted to reauthorize SCHIP because it provides critical federal funds for young Texans’ health care needs, which are not currently being met. The 72 cent federal match under SCHIP will also deliver a cost savings to state and local taxpayers, so they aren’t paying the full expense of treatment,”.

Under the bill passed today, Texas’ SCHIP allotment is expected to rise 72% from approximately $550 million to over $945 million, according to the Congressional Research Service. It also authorizes federal reimbursement for legal immigrant children under the SCHIP program, which will return approximately $23 million per year to the State of Texas.

According to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, Texas spent $25.2 million in FY08 on healthcare for 16,200 eligible legal immigrant children, and estimates that the number of eligible and enrolled legal immigrant children will grow to approximately 20,000 in FY09.

Said Sen. Hutchison. “Under this legislation, Texas’ SCHIP allotment is projected to increase by more than 70 percent, making available an additional $395 million, allowing hundreds of thousands of low-income children across the state access to healthcare.”

Hutchison offered an amendment today that would have increased Texas' allotment based on it's percentage of children with no health insurance coverage above the national average. Her amendment was voted down 81-17. Hutchison was joined by Cornyn on that vote.

Cornyn yesterday offered an amendment that would have reduced eligibility to the program and retained a five year waiting period for legal immigrants to join the program.

Speaking on that amendment, Cornyn said “To improve the bill and to focus on low-income children, I've offered this amendment that prohibits redistributing funds to states that have expanded their SCHIP program to higher income families or adults … Redistributed funds should be reserved for covering low-income children, to assist states with specific outreach and enrollment activities that will help enroll large numbers of low-income children who are eligible but not enrolled. We have a choice. We can either focus on low-income children or we can choose to expand the program and leave many low-income children behind,”.

Both Texans voted for that amendment, which also failed.