House Health Care Bill Repeals Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)!

[Better Believe It]

CHIP on Chopping Block in House Health Reform Bill
Current Bill Drops Popular Children's Health Plan in 2014
By Mike Lillis
November 3, 2009

Nine months ago, Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill were all celebration as they hailed the renewal of the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program. Last week, they called for CHIP’s demise.

The $894 billion, 1,990-page health reform bill unveiled by House Democrats last Thursday would repeal CHIP at the end of 2013, shifting millions of kids instead into private plans contained on a proposed health insurance marketplace, dubbed the exchange.

Party leaders have been mostly tight-lipped about their motivations. But a series of factors seem to have driven their decision, according to sources on and off Capitol Hill, including hopes to get family members under the same plan, to centralize control of the state-run CHIP program, and to shift more folks into private coverage to win the support of both the insurance lobby and moderate Democrats.

Yet the proposed shuffle has roused concerns from some Democratic lawmakers and children’s health care advocates, who fear the move would cause some youngsters to lose coverage as they jump from highly subsidized CHIP plans into private coverage that could prove more expensive for those low-income families. Critics also worry that the private plans won’t offer the same extensive benefits that CHIP does.

“The president has promised to build upon what works and to allow people to keep the coverage they have,” said a representative of one children’s welfare group, speaking only anonymously because of the delicate political nature of the topic. “That promise should apply to kids as well. However, there is growing concern and evidence that the health insurance exchanges will still impose higher out-of-pocket costs for families with fewer benefits for children than CHIP coverage.”

The criticisms over CHIP have raised questions about the importance of the program, with some advocates fighting for its preservation while others maintain that the coverage itself is more important than the program that provides it. The House proposal also sets the stage for a CHIP clash between House Democrats and those in the Senate, where a provision preserving the program was passed by members of the Finance Committee last month.

Read the complete article at:

http://washingtonindependent.com/66346/chip-on-chopping-block-in-house-health-reform-bill


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Republican Attacks the Proposed Repeal of CHIP
By Mike Lillis
November 4, 2009

By calling for the end of the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program, House Democratic leaders have put themselves in the uncomfortable position of claiming that the program they fought so hard to preserve and expand in recent years is no longer worth keeping around. At least one Republican lawmaker is calling them out on it.

Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) told The Charleston Gazette yesterday that the proposed CHIP repeal “is yet another example of pieces of this bill that just don’t add up.”

Capito has supported the CHIP program since she was in the state Legislature, she said. “The fact that takes aim at a popular program that we know is effective only further demonstrates that this bill isn’t ready for prime time.”

In the Senate, a similar proposal to eliminate CHIP was thwarted by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), whose amendment preserving CHIP passed the Senate Finance Committee last month. Rockefeller’s office declined to comment this week for our CHIP story, but the senator himself wasn’t so restrained, telling the Gazette that, for the kids in CHIP, lawmakers “should do all we can to shield them from harm. Period.”

http://washingtonindependent.com/66542/republican-attacks-the-proposed-repeal-of-chip


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Rockefeller: Proposal to Repeal CHIP Is ‘Harmful’ and ‘Intolerable’
By Mike Lillis
November 4, 2009

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), who last month salvaged the Children’s Health Insurance Program in the Senate’s health reform bill, just issued a statement condemning the House legislation for proposing to terminate the program.

“As health reform moves forward, we need to make sure children can keep their CHIP coverage and not be forced into untested private coverage,” Rockefeller said.

"The Congressional Budget Office has been very clear that replacing CHIP with private health coverage will lead some children to lose their health coverage altogether, which is harmful and intolerable. Health care reform should improve the coverage children have – not take their coverage away.

I have spent my entire career working to protect children and other vulnerable populations, and will keep fighting to protect CHIP as health care reform goes to the Senate floor, and then moves to conference with the House of Representatives. We must do all we can to shield children from harm. Always."

It’s tough to envision a scenario in which Rockefeller, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee’s health subpanel, won’t play a part in the discussions forging the final bill. This statement, therefore, is hardly good news for the House Democratic leaders who’ve proposed to shift CHIP kids into private plans on the exchange.

http://washingtonindependent.com/66607/rockefeller-proposal-to-repeal-chip-is-harmful-and-intolerable

[Aramchek]

1. you will fail in your attempts to stop the Public Option

get yourself prepared.

[Oregone]

6. IOW: Smile and enjoy your shit sandwich

[Aramchek]

9. No... your Crow sandwich

[DJ13]

2. I have no issue with it being ended to roll them into the same plan as their parents

My question is, what about the billions per year of tax increases that went into effect to fund SCHIP?

Do those taxes end, or do they continue and that money gets taken by the government to use as they wish?

[Better Believe It]

4. It appears from the article that the subsidies will end and the program could be greatly weakened.

[Oregone]

5. But taking them off public rolls adds another 30% in the cost of their healthcare

And subsidizing those inefficiencies of the private system, as well as profits, is going to eat away at the government coffers even faster than the CHIP funding. There is a proven cost to privatizing health insurance.

[My Good Babushka]

3. I hope the plans that low income families can afford

will have coverage that is just as good as SCHIP. I'm afraid I will be paying for a health insurance plan that we can't afford to actually use.

[slipslidingaway]

7. According to this study the median actuarial value of the CHIP program...

is well over 90% and closer to 100% in several circumstances. We know the proposed House bill uses 70% actuarial value as a base and the Senate bill could use a lower value.

Maybe there is something else in the bill to make up the difference in out of pocket spending, we better hope so for the sake of these children.

:shrug:


2 page pdf
http://www.firstfocus.net/Download/10.1.SUMMARY.pdf

"...Specifically, Watson Wyatt Worldwide finds that the actuarial value of the median CHIP plan is 100% at 175% of the federal
poverty level (FPL). The actuarial value of the median CHIP plan at 225% FPL is 98%. “Actuarial value” refers to the
percentage of total allowed medical charges paid by a health plan. The actuarial value is expressed as a share of all medical
expenses, i.e. an actuarial value of 75% means that the health plan would pay 75% of covered medical expenses for a standard
population. Actuarial values only consider benefits payments and do not include premiums. In the Senate Finance bill, there are
4 different plan benefit levels in the Exchange with actuarial values ranging from 65-90%. In the Senate HELP bill, there are 3
different plan benefit levels ranging from 76-93%. In the House Tri-Committee bill, there are 3 different plan benefit levels
ranging from 70-95%.

The study also examines the difference in premiums imposed by CHIP versus exchange plans, finding that on average,
premiums would be significantly higher in the exchange. If children are moved into exchange plans without mitigating these
costs, the combination of higher premiums and higher out-of-pocket costs would leave millions of kids worse off..."

[slipslidingaway]

8. kick n/t

[dionysus]

10. actually it's meant to replace it, but then again you knew that. try harder.

[ej510]

11. This bill is a pile of shit.

This bill sucks and was written by insurance lobbyist. Premiums will skyrocket before the bill goes into affect and the premiums will rise in 2010 and after it takes full affect. They are selling diarrhea as apple sauce and some people are buying it.