Chambliss, Isakson Reject Government-Run Healthcare Funded With Tax Increase, Vote to Put Healthcare for Low-Income Children First

Press Release

Senators Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., on Thursday night rejected a massive $35 billion expansion of a children's healthcare program, arguing that the bill would shift a program intended for low-income children toward a government-run healthcare system for children and adults funded by a regressive tax increase. The bill was approved by a vote of 68 to 31, and President Bush has threatened to veto it.

The bill expands the State Children's Health Insurance Program, also known as SCHIP, by $35 billion over the next five years. The bill also raises the federal tobacco tax by 61 cents per pack of cigarettes to pay for the increase.

While Chambliss and Isakson support SCHIP and want to see it reauthorized, they said this bill expanded the program far beyond its original intent of providing health insurance to low-income children whose families earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but do not make enough to purchase private health insurance. The two senators also soundly rejected the plan to pay for the massive expansion of the program with a tax increase.

"I support reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, and I am greatly concerned that the bill passed by the Senate threatens the program's long-term viability," said Chambliss. "Unfortunately, what has gotten lost in this entire debate is the core mission of SCHIP. The bill passed by the Senate not only expands coverage for adults and therefore shifts the focus, but it creates a new middle-class entitlement program that is paid for through budget gimmicks and massive tax increases. The Senate bill also removes more than 2 million children from private health insurance and places them into the government-run healthcare program, and that is simply the wrong approach."

"SCHIP has proven to be a success in Georgia and across all 50 states, and I would like to see that the program remains true to its original intent - healthcare access for underprivileged children," Isakson said. "As the years have gone by, some states have chosen to enroll adults without children in their SCHIP programs, the result of which has compromised this program and taken money that was intended to go to children and sent it to adults. This is the absolute wrong way to improve this program. I cannot support a $35 billion expansion of this program so that more adults can receive coverage and I cannot support paying for that expansion with a tax increase."

Some states enroll adults with no children in their SCHIP programs, and under the bill passed by the Senate, states would be allowed to increase the number of adults allowed to participate in SCHIP programs. 's PeachCare program does not provide coverage for adults.

Chambliss and Isakson supported an alternative proposal by U.S. Senator Trent Lott (R-Miss.) that would have expanded SCHIP by $9.5 billion over the next five years, phase out non-pregnant adults from the program, prevent the addition of any new non-pregnant adults to the program, provide additional funds to target low-income children and encourage the use of premium assistance. It would have been offset by reducing federal reimbursements for administrative expenses in the program and by health insurance proposals in the bill, including a proposal to allow small businesses to band together across state lines to offer health insurance plans. The Lott proposal failed 35 to 61.

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