Written by: Jim Hansen
Monday, August 20, 2007

For a generation, our Congress has yielded to the demands of the insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyists who fund their campaigns. Hence, more and more families and small businesses cannot afford health insurance. Congress wasn't always without moral fortitude, however. Ten years ago, they said that at least poor children should have some basic health coverage and they created the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)

SCHIP is due to expire on Sept. 30, so the House and Senate recently passed their own versions of bills to reauthorize it. The Senate passed their version on August 2 by a bi-partisan majority of 68-31. I was embarrassed to find out that Idaho's two senators Larry Craig and Mike Crapo voted NO. Both of Idaho's House members also voted NO on the version that passed in the House on August 1. Of course, I took the opportunity to ask about it when I went to Sen. Craig's Coeur d'Alene office on Friday. His aide's response took me aback. She insisted that Sen. Craig does support SCHIP but voted no only because the Senate bill expanded SCHIP to include adults.

That was a new one to me. I know odd things get put into bills all the time but it seemed odd that all the national press coverage I've read so far would miss such a huge item. I gave Senator Craig's aide the benefit of the doubt that she would tell us the whole truth and was genuinely sorry to find out she did not when I checked her facts this morning.

I found out that in recent years 5 states have asked for a special waiver to use a small portion of their SCHIP funds to cover some poor adults. The Bush administration has agreed to the waiver. The House bill prohibits new waivers and transitions current poor adults into Medicaid by 2009. The Senate bill also prohibits new waivers and allows only those few states that have them to continue them. (Those greedy poor people and the states that seem to care about them! Who do they think they are, members of Congress???)

Craig's staffer surely knew these facts, yet did not explain them at all. She was quite confident in the impression she gave the SCHIP bill Craig voted against significantly changed SCHIP to include adults when, in fact, it did not. Poor adults in all of the other 45 states that did get a waiver (including Idaho - not surprisingly) have to wait for another solution to their dilemma.

President Bush does not want SCHIP expanded to include more children. I assumed Craig was just taking orders from the elites in his party when he voted no on Aug. 2. He follows their lead 89.5% of the time. It is disheartening to be misled by the Senators staff that the reason for his opposition was not that but something that - in fact - was not in the bill he voted on.

It would be interesting to see if you get a different response from the senator's office. Try writing or calling him and see.

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