Congress Should Reauthorize SCHIP, Not Expand It

Statement

Congress Should Reauthorize SCHIP, Not Expand It


I believe that our priority with the State Children's Heath Insurance Program (SCHIP) ought to be enrolling children from low-income families who currently lack access to healthcare. That is why I support reauthorizing the program with an increase in funding.

Every dollar of this expanded children's health insurance program we spend covering adults, children who previously had private health insurance and the families of illegal immigrants is money we are not spending on the children this program is intended to help. This expansion takes us away from the very reason SCHIP was created: to cover low-income children without health insurance.

This legislation without a doubt makes it easier for illegal aliens to get taxpayer-funded healthcare. The legislation wipes away the current requirement for multiple sources of identification and requires merely a name and a social security number to apply for benefits. The only safe-guard is a single statement that says no illegal aliens can get benefits.

That's like opening the door to the chicken coop, but saying its okay because we put up a sign that says "No Foxes Allowed." The fact of the matter is that illegal aliens by their very definition have already broken the law. The proof that this won't stop illegal aliens from getting free taxpayer-funded healthcare is that there are millions of illegal aliens working and living in this country already with nothing more than a name and a social security number for identification.

Moreover, the cost of the expansion of this tax-payer funded healthcare program is alarming. It is supposed to be funded by a 61 cent increase in tobacco taxes. However, the Heritage Foundation found that we would need 22 million new smokers to actually generate enough tobacco tax revenue to pay for this expansion. This bill is mandatory funding, meaning that when the tobacco tax fails to pay for the bill, Congress will have to raise taxes or cut spending on other programs—like repairing our nation's infrastructure.

Additionally, you might have missed the news that New York Senator Hillary Clinton helped get a waiver for her state to include families who make as much as $83,000 a year in the program. That is 400 percent above the poverty level. Missouri taxpayers should not be paying the health care costs for families in New York that make over $80,000 a year. Nor should they be paying for adults which some states allow.

Finally, according to the Congressional Budget Office the expansion of this government-run healthcare initiative would likely mean that the 2 million kids who already have private insurance would opt for their state's government run healthcare program. That isn't fixing a problem, its increasing government.

I hope that we can come together and reauthorize the current children's healthcare program before it expires in November. Expanding the program would extend benefits to illegal aliens, families who already have health insurance, and would place the entire program in questionable financial shape without sufficient funding to pay for its own largesse.

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