President Obama Signs Legislation Expanding SCHIP Coverage to 4 Million More Children

Congress has moved rapidly to reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, approving a measure that reauthorizes the program for the next four and one-half years while expanding coverage to 4 million more children.

President Obama signed H.R. 2 (at the THOMAS Web site, type "H.R. 2" in the search box after selecting "Bill Number") into law on Feb. 4 during a White House ceremony attended by AAFP EVP Doug Henley, M.D.

The enactment of the bill marks the first legislative victory in health care for the Obama administration and the first step in the long road to national health care reform, according to analysts interviewed by AAFP News Now.

"This signals the administration's promise to help fix a broken health care system by expanding coverage and helping the most vulnerable," said AAFP President Ted Epperly, M.D., of Boise, Idaho. "It shows what the administration is thinking in terms of the importance of improving our health care system. And that is music to our ears."

SCHIP is a joint federal and state program that currently provides coverage to more than 6 million uninsured children from working families who are not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid. The newly enacted legislation will increase SCHIP spending by $32.8 billion during the next four and a half years, expanding coverage to 11 million children by 2013, according to the Congressional Budget Office. It will be funded by a 62-cent-per-pack increase in the federal cigarette tax.

"Any time you can provide coverage to 4 million more kids, it is the right thing to do," said Epperly. "And when you can do that by making tobacco use less attractive, you have to count that as a double victory."

Under the new law, states can allow children in families with incomes of as much as three times the federal poverty level to qualify for the program. The measure also eliminates a five-year waiting period for legal, documented immigrant children, a provision that prompted some Republican opposition in the House and Senate. In addition, the measure creates a new option for states to enroll low-income pregnant women in the program, and it includes dental benefits and parity for mental health benefits.