House set to pass kids' health insurance bill Wed.

February 3, 2009

By KEVIN FREKING

WASHINGTON, Feb. 4, 2009 (AP Online delivered by Newstex) -- The House stood ready to approve on Wednesday a bill extending health coverage to 4 million uninsured children, a first step in President Barack Obama's promise of universal health coverage.

"Unemployment keeps rising and people are going from worried to scared," Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said as the House began debate on the bill. "A such a time it is our most basic economic and moral responsibility to provide health care to the most vulnerable among us."

The House was expected to approve the expansion of the children's health insurance program and deliver it to Obama for his quick signature later in the day. The bill passed the Senate last week.

Republicans criticized the cost of the legislation -- an additional $32.8 billion through 2013. They also said it will mean an estimated 2.4 million children who otherwise would have access to private insurance will join the State Children's Health Insurance Program instead.

"The Democrats continue to push their government-run health care agenda, universal coverage as they call it," said Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Tex.

An estimated 7 million children are now enrolled in SCHIP.

To cover the increase in spending, the bill would boost the federal excise tax on a pack of cigarettes by 62 cents, to $1.01 a pack.

SCHIP was created more than a decade ago to help children in families with incomes too high to quality for Medicaid but too low to afford private coverage.

Federal money for the program was set to expire March 31, barring action by Congress.

Opponents of the bill complain that the tobacco tax increase hits the poor the hardest, because they are more likely to smoke than wealthier people are. Many also took exception to expanding the program and Medicaid to children of newly arrived legal immigrants.

Former President George W. Bush twice vetoed a similar spending increase in late 2007. There was little doubt Democrats had the votes to pass the measure once they decided to take it up again. Lawmakers made it a priority in 2009.