|
E-mail this page to a friend!
Senior Citizen Politics
Senate Begins Debate on SCHIP, House Agrees on
Revisions
House Dems agree to two-year limit stopping Medicare pay cuts to physicians
July 31, 2007 - The Senate on Monday voted 80-0 to
begin debate on legislation (S
1893) that would reauthorize SCHIP and expand funding for the
program by $35 billion over five years, CongressDaily reports (Johnson,
CongressDaily, 7/31). SCHIP expires on Sept. 30.
The
Senate Finance
Committee on July 13 finalized an agreement on SCHIP
reauthorization that would increase five-year funding for the program
from $25 billion to $60 billion by raising the federal cigarette tax
from 39 cents to $1 per pack. Under the plan, the 6.6 million children
currently enrolled in SCHIP would continue to receive benefits, and an
additional 3.3 million children could be enrolled in the program (Kaiser
Daily Health Policy Report, 7/20).
The Senate bill would allow states to enroll
pregnant women but would exclude undocumented immigrants (CongressDaily,
7/31). President Bush on Monday issued a formal veto threat against the
Senate legislation. Bush has proposed a $5 billion increase over five
years for SCHIP, which would raise the program's total five-year funding
to $30 billion (Donnelly,
Boston Globe,
7/31).
A Statement of Administrative Policy issued by the
White House said that the Senate bill "essentially extends a welfare
benefit to middle-class households." In addition, the administration
takes issue with the proposed exclusion of pregnant undocumented
immigrants because the bill "wrongly weakens the current option
available to states to cover unborn children and their mothers,"
according to the SAP.
Under current policy, states may allow pregnant
undocumented immigrants to enroll in SCHIP to receive prenatal and
delivery services because their children will be U.S. citizens (CongressDaily,
7/31). A second cloture vote later this week might be necessary to end
debate and move to vote on the legislation, according to CongressDaily
(Johnson, CongressDaily, 7/30).
House Developments
Meanwhile, House Democrats on Monday reached an
agreement on revisions to SCHIP legislation (HR
3162) that would enable the bill to meet budgetary pay/go
requirements, CQ Today reports (Wayne, CQ Today, 7/30). A preliminary
scoring by the
Congressional
Budget Office found that over the next 10 years, the bill
marked up by the
House Energy and
Commerce Committee would have a deficit of $90 billion, most
of which would occur in the second half of that time period.
The
House Ways and
Means Committee bill would have a $76 billion deficit in a
decade, all of which would occur in the second half of that time period,
according to CBO Director Peter Orszag (Kaiser
Daily Health Policy Report, 7/27).
To meet the pay/go guidelines, Democrats agreed to
reduce the amount of funding allotted for bonuses to states for
enrolling children in SCHIP. Lawmakers also agreed to limit to two years
plans to reverse scheduled cuts in Medicare payments to physicians,
according to a House aide. Funding for state bonuses would not be
affected in the first five years, and subsequent reductions would be
based on the notion that the "goal of improving enrollment in the
program will have been achieved by the time the bonuses are scaled
back," according to CQ Today (CQ Today, 7/30).
The
House Rules
Committee before the August recess this week is scheduled to
combine the bills approved in the House Ways and Means Committee and the
House Energy and Commerce Committee for floor consideration (Young, The
Hill, 7/31).
Latest Scoring
The latest scoring documents from CBO estimate that
the House SCHIP legislation would cost $47.8 billion over five years and
$159.9 billion over 10 years,
CQ HealthBeat
reports. The scoring includes figures for the years 2008-2012 and
2008-2017. Reversal of a scheduled payment cut to physicians in 2008 and
2009 would cost $20.1 billion over five years, including the costs of a
0.5% increase for those two years. The 10-year cost of the reversal of
cuts for those two years is $101 billion, according to CBO.
The scoring also determined that House cuts to
Medicare Advantage plans would result in a decline in expenditures of
$50.4 billion over five years and $157.1 billion over 10 years. All cuts
to Medicare included by the bill would total $194.8 billion over 10
years.
However, it is "unclear" how closely the scoring
document reflects the provisions on which lawmakers will vote, according
to CQ HealthBeat. It also is unknown whether House lawmakers will make
deeper cuts or pay for the bill over five years, CQ HealthBeat notes
(Reichard, CQ HealthBeat, 7/30).
Broadcast Coverage
Three broadcast programs recently reported on the
debate over SCHIP. Summaries appear below.
>> C-SPAN's "Washington
Journal": The segment includes a discussion with
HHS
Secretary Mike Leavitt ("Washington Journal," C-SPAN, 7/30). Video of
the segment is available
online.
>> NPR's "All
Things Considered": The segment includes comments from Bush
and Jon Gruber, a health economist at the
Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (Rovner, "All Things Considered,"
NPR, 7/30). Audio of the segment is available
online.
>> PBS' "The
NewsHour with Jim Lehrer": The segment includes discussions
with Leavitt and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) (Ifill, "The NewsHour
with Jim Lehrer," PBS, 7/30). Audio and a transcript of the segment are
available
online.
Video will be available Tuesday afternoon.
Click to More Senior News on the
Front Page
Copyright: SeniorJournal.com |
