Governors Call for Swift Action on SCHIP

The National Governors Association, or NGA, has called on Congress and the Bush administration to reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, and to provide adequate, predictable funding that will avert future shortfalls.

The call came in a new policy the NGA announced April 9. In it, the governors urge Congress to immediately address funding shortfalls that are looming in 14 states and to then reauthorize SCHIP in a way that includes "sufficient funding to account for increased medical costs and population growth, as well as to ensure that all eligible populations, determined by each state, are able to have access to affordable health care under SCHIP."

Moreover, the policy statement calls for reauthorization that

"The flexibility of the SCHIP program has made it among the most valuable tools for states to increase affordable health care for both children and their parents, and taking a step backward would be devastating," said New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, chair of the NGA Health and Human Services Committee, in a news release announcing the policy.

Congress has yet to act on either the SCHIP reauthorization or legislation that would prevent a $745 million shortfall that will affect 14 states: Alaska, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.

Currently, allocations that would prevent the SCHIP shortfall are tied up in legislation that provides supplemental funding for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. President Bush has threatened to veto the bill because it contains language on troop withdrawals from Iraq.

Although members of Congress requested a separate supplement for SCHIP, the White House rejected the proposal, saying that states with SCHIP surpluses should give up their unspent funds to help states with deficits. Congress has resisted that proposal, pointing to a Government Accountability Office report (PDF file: 48 pages / 1 MB. More about PDFs.) that says although some states may not spend all of their individual allotments, overall state spending on SCHIP has outstripped federal funding in recent years.