Congress is already demonstrating how it differs from its predecessor on increasing health care for children. On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed legislation expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) by $32.3 billion in the span of four and half years. President-elect Barack Obama hopes and urges the Senate, who is expected to vote on the bill next week, to also pass the legislation. The bill would be funded by tobacco sales-including a 61-cent tax increase on cigarettes. While the editorial board of The Miami Student realizes the importance of children's health insurance, we do not think that the Senate should pass the legislation. The plan that will eliminate competition with private insurance companies and physician-owned hospitals. Also, relying on the sale of tobacco purchases to fund a $32 billion project doesn't offer a viable and secure source of revenue. The burden will fall on the government to cover the gaps.
The greatest rebuttal and concern of expanding SCHIP is insufficient funding. Even by increasing the tax on cigarettes, there is no guarantee that the costs of the program will be covered. With most Americans feeling the effects of the economic crisis, this isn't the right time for the government, with the help of taxpayers, to shell out more money to pay for the lack funding for SCHIP.
The bill also has the potential of driving and limiting the growth of physician-owned hospitals. There are hundreds of physician-owned hospitals in the nation and the language of SCHIP would cause these hospitals to waste away since they wouldn't be able to compete with the market demand. There are thousands of employees who work for physician-owned hospitals and the possibility of eliminating these jobs would leave many families without an income.
In 2007, President George W. Bush vetoed two similar bills, arguing that private insurance companies wouldn't be able to compete with a state-run program. Accordingly, SCHIP would limit the competition amongst private insurance companies versus state-funded health care.
It is this editorial board's utmost belief that children should be able to have access to health insurance. However, the current language of the SCHIP bill isn't the answer.
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