Taking Health Care from the Mouths of Babes

In a new report FactCheck.org has charged that President Bush has repeatedly made false claims about SCHIP, the Children's Health Care Program, while threatening to Veto the bi-partisan Senate version of it's reauthorization which would provide an additional $35 billion in funding for the program. According to Factcheck.org the President has stated that Senate's version of the bill would take a program "meant to help poor children and turning it into one that covers children in households with incomes of up to $83,000 a year." yet according to estimates from the Urban Institute "70 percent of children who would gain coverage are in families earning half that amount".

In contrast to Bush's claim that SCHIP was intended only to help "poor children", Factcheck points out that the stated intent of the program has always been to fill the void between "low-income" children who are above the poverty line but still uninsured.

Meanwhile Bush's own proposal to increase SCHIP funding by just $5 Billion would widen that void even further. As noted by Media Matters Bush's proposal of an additional $5 billion over five years not enough to meet the project demand for the program and would by 2012 result in a $9 billion net reduction in health care for poor and low-income children compared to current levels, according to figures released by the Congressional Budget Office..