AAFP Denounces Bush Veto of SCHIP Legislation

As expected, President Bush vetoed a bill on Oct. 3 that would have reauthorized and greatly expanded the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, prompting a swift and sharp rebuke from the AAFP, which has worked tirelessly during the past several months to ensure enactment of proposed SCHIP legislation.

"This bipartisan legislation ensures that children now enrolled in SCHIP will continue to have coverage, and it expands that coverage to 6 million children who, today, do not have access to health care," said AAFP Board Chair Rick Kellerman, M.D., of Wichita, Kan., in a prepared statement.

Kellerman called on Democrats and Republicans in Congress to "continue their bipartisan efforts to help American families by overriding this veto."

"Without an override, Congress will allow the status quo to continue while the children of hardworking, low-income parents wait to see a doctor," he said.

The AAFP met numerous times with members of Congress and their staffs, urging support for legislation to expand the program. The House and Senate passed different versions of bills to reauthorize the program, eventually agreeing on a $35 billion expansion of SCHIP during the next five years that would bring another 6 million children into the program, increasing the number of SCHIP-covered recipients to nearly 10 million.

President Bush earlier had proposed a $5 billion increase for SCHIP during the next five years, an amount the Congressional Budget Office and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities both found insufficient to maintain current enrollment. Bush said the SCHIP bill would lead to a single-payer health care system, which he considered unacceptable.

The Senate passed its version of the SCHIP bill by a veto-proof margin, but the House could not muster enough votes to override the president's promised veto. As a result, Congress currently does not have enough votes to override Bush's veto, leaving the program's long-term future in limbo for now.