SCHIP BILL MOVES FORWARD WITH THE HELP OF MOST OF FLORIDA’S DELEGATION
Florida congressional delegates have recorded their votes. Both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate have acted on the State Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), expanding coverage nationally to as many as 4-million children.
SCHIP passed with bi-partisan but not universal support among Florida’s congressional leaders. Voting YES on the House side were: Rep. Allen Boyd (D.), Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R), Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R), Rep. Vern Buchanan (R), Rep. Kathy Castor (D), Rep. Alan Grayson (D), Rep. Alcee Hastings (D), Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (D), Rep. Kendrick Meek (D), Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R), Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D), Rep. Robert Wexler (D), and Rep. Bill Young (R).
Note: Last year, Representatives Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Mario Diaz-Balart both had voted “no”. Their “yes” vote this time around is commendable. New members to the Florida congressional delegation who voted “yes” include Grayson and Kosmas.
Voting NO were Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R), Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R), Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (R), Rep. John Mica (R), Rep. Jeff Miller (R), Rep. Bill Posey (R), Rep. Adam Putnam (R), Rep. Tom Rooney (R), and Rep. Cliff Stearns (R).
Senators Bill Nelson (D) and Mel Martinez (R), voted for the Senate version.
Note: Last year, Senator Martinez had voted “no”. His “yes” vote this year is commendable.
After three long days of debate last week, the Senate passed a bill to reauthorize the SCHIP program with a vote of 66-32. The bill provides an additional 4-million children with access to affordable health insurance coverage, while ensuring that coverage for the currently enrolled 7-million is maintained. Among the provisions, the bill lifts the five year federal ban that prevented legal immigrant children and pregnant women from accessing coverage under the SCHIP program – a key victory for child advocates! In addition, the Senate-bill allows children to receive dental coverage through SCHIP without needing to drop their private coverage.
Child health advocates are hopeful that the House will take the Senate version up for a vote, eliminating the need for conference.
SCHIP federal funding requires an approximate 30% state match to draw down the federal dollars.
While they were unsuccessful, U.S. Congresswoman Kathy Castor and Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink are to be commended for their proposal for a one-year waiver for states to provide the funding match if the state’s number of insured children fall into the lowest quartile nationwide; and if the state is projecting at least a 10% budget deficit in the upcoming fiscal year.
As a result, advocates in Florida must wrestle again with the state budget bear. The stinginess from the Florida Legislature in providing match dollars has resulted in large numbers of children being uninsured. Florida will again face the prospect of losing out on the increased federal funding if it does not raise the current appropriations level for its state match. If this happens, our state legislators will have continued the practice of allowing the federal tax dollars paid by Floridians to drift to other states.
Citizen advocates are advised to take several actions:
- Commend the House should they accept the Senate version, allowing it to go forward quickly to President Obama.
- Get louder about the need for Florida to increase its state match to cover uninsured children
- Thank the Florida congressional leaders who voted for the SCHIP bill.
- Continue to educate those who voted against the measure as to the reasons the program should be expanded.
HEALTHY START COALITIONS ASK GOV. CRIST TO EXPAND PRENATAL CARE
Florida's Healthy Start Coalitions in a letter to Governor Charlie Crist have called for a levy of 40-cents a pack on small cigarette manufacturers in order to expand prenatal care. The levy would raise $89-million and would be sufficient to "... fully fund needed services for Florida's pregnant women and babies in Healthy Start, help expand Medicaid coverage up to 200% of the poverty level, and aid other programs that protect the health of Florida's babies and mothers."
Healthy Start Coalitions statewide served nearly 200,000 Florida mothers last year. They are worried about DOH proposals which would slash their funding by nearly 22% at a time when the program is meeting less than half of the known need.
The loophole which the Healthy Start coalitions hope to close allows some cigarette manufacturers to escape paying into the Lawton Chiles Trust Fund created as part of the historic tobacco settlement. These non-participating manufacturers, or NPMs, have gained a competitive advantage as a result and sell their cigarettes for far cheaper prices than the major suppliers. The cheaper cigarettes are attractive to more youthful and less affluent consumers. NPMs market share has increased steadily.
There is direct causality between smoking by pregnant women and the delivery of low birth weight babies.
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