SCHIP

I don't know about anyone else, but I started seeing ads on tv about a month ago talking about how great our local congressman is and that we should all call him and thank him for making sure millions of our kids have health insurance. Then, I got a flier in the mail with the same message and the phone number for the congressional switchboard. I looked into it and found out what they were referring to... the recent vote on the expansion of SCHIP - State Children's Health Insurance Program.

Wikipedia says, "The State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is a United States federal government program that gives matching funds to states in order to provide health insurance to families with children. The program was designed to cover uninsured children in families with incomes that are modest but too high to qualify for Medicaid."


The program is mainly funded by the huge taxes on tobacco products, which ironically, affects the poor at a much higher rate than those with higher incomes. Michelle Malkin writes, "The National Taxpayers Union noted that tobacco taxes take a 50-times-larger share of income from those earning less than $20,000 than those earning more than $200,000. Put another way: Families making less than $30,000 per year pay more than half of all taxes paid on cigarettes, while families making more than $60,000 pay only 14 percent."

I completely understand the need for some sort of health coverage for the (working) poor, but I wondered who exactly is benefiting from this program.

So, a couple of weeks ago, I asked a local doctor what she thought of SCHIP. SCHIP in our state is called "All Kids", and families that make up to $45,000 can qualify. It can be helpful to those whose companies don't offer health insurance and they can't afford - or qualify - for it on their own. Still, $45k? That seems like a pretty high income. I don't know that I really want to be paying for someone else's health care coverage when they're making about the same as a starting college-educated engineer's salary.

Since every state can set their own rules for who qualifies, the income limits are different everywhere. Malkin notes, "In New Jersey, people earning as much as $295,000 were enrolled in its S-CHIP program dubbed “NJ FamilyCare.” Like many states, New Jersey failed to check eligibility for all program enrollees and refuses to do stringent assets tests. As I’ve noted before, the refusal to do assets tests on federal health insurance programs is why federal entitlements are exploding and government keeps expanding."

Well, this isn't a one-time scenario. Last month, President Obama lifted some of Bush's SCHIP eligibility rules. The Wall Street Journal writes, "Basically, the rules made it very difficult for states to use SCHIP for children whose families made more than 250% of the federal poverty level (somewhere around $50,000 a year for a family of four, we said in ‘07)." [Note: in New Jersey, a family of four earning $74,200, or 350% of the national poverty level, qualifies. In New York, that number is $82,600].

In an op ed on WSJ, one writer points out, "initially designed for children of working-poor families, this new Super-Schip will be double in size, and even kids whose parents make $65,000 a year will be eligible. The program will also now cover pregnant women and automatically enroll their new arrivals. The Congressional Budget Office estimates 2.4 million individuals will drop their private coverage for the public program."

So, people making up to $82,600 or less a year can now drop their own private health care in favor for "free" government-sponsored health care? Apparently, prioritizing your spending is not a valued American characteristic. If you make $82-65k/year (or less), I can't imagine that if you're responsible with your money (not living above your means, wasteful spending), that you absolutely cannot afford to pay for your own family's health care and that you should have the rest of the taxpayers pay for your and your childrens' health care. (By the way, you don't even have to be a citizen to qualify for SCHIP).

Reminds me of the newly-dubbed "octomom", who while facing foreclosure on her home and living off of food stamps, was photographed taking one of her sons on a video game shopping spree. What the...?! Where is the personal responsibility here? Why do non-working people who choose to spend their money on plastic surgery, multiple in-vitro procedures, and video games instead of their house payments qualify for these programs? Why are we paying for the (cushy) lifestyles of the lazy?

I'm not saying that everyone who takes advantage of these programs abuses the system, but it sure seems like a lot of them do. If we have enough of the lazies abusing the system, why are we expanding enrollment for more people to take advantage of their hardworking neighbors' tax money?

I love how the bill is pushed as "provid[ing] health insurance to uninsured, low-income children 18 years of age or younger, including those who are homeless," when in fact, it allows those who make middle-to-high incomes to drop their private health care to get a free pass. It also covers more than just children and expectant mothers.

Things to note about SCHIP (see SCHIP website here):
- You don't even have to be an American citizen to qualify
- 7.4 million people were enrolled last year - backers of the expansion hope to add >4 million this year.
- increases the tobacco tax from 39 cents/pack to $1
- increases "entitlement costs by $115 billion over ten years and the federal budget deficit by nearly $42 billion over that period"
- this isn't just children - 54% of SCHIP funds are spent on adults.
- "out of every 100 people who sign up for a state SCHIP expansion, roughly 65 have dropped private insurance to do so." - Independence Institute

I did call my congressman and leave a message about his vote for "ensuring that our kids have health insurance", but it wasn't to thank him.