The State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) has been a hot topic in Congress over the past week and, as I write this, Democrat leadership is scurrying about to try and roundup the needed votes to pass this legislation. So what is the problem? Surely something that has the words "Children's Health Insurance" in its title should have no problem passing as Democrat Congress, right?
The problem is that the current legislation Democrat leadership is pushing would increase federal spending for the S-CHIP program by $50 BILLION over the next 5 years. And how are they going to pay for this $50 billion? Increased taxes of course, including a tax on privately held health insurance plans such as the one you probably have.
Now, the S-CHIP program was originally designed to help poverty level children, something I think we can all get behind. But who will be the beneficiary of this increased spending under the new plan? A family of 4, including adults, who make up to $81,000 per year or 400% above poverty level could qualify to be covered under this program. It looks to me more like a gradual spread of socialized medicine rather than helping the truly needy in our country. Ironically enough, under the Democrat's expanded S-CHIP program, 70,000 American families would be "poor enough" to qualify for S-CHIP while at the same time among "the rich" who have to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT).