Enroll in SCHIP and Drop Private Coverage?

The Associated press has just reported on a Congressional Budget Office report that said for every 100 children who enroll in SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program), there is a corresponding reduction in private coverage of between 25 and 50 children.

CBO officials also pointed out that when SCHIP was created, it had been estimated that about 40% of the participants would previously have had private insurance. If those parents were actually at or beneath the federal poverty level, I have no problem with this. Those families could certainly have found an excellent use for the freed money.

If, however, these were children whose parents only became eligible because they lived in a state that raised the income by doubling or tripling the federal poverty level to attract entrants, I don’t think that was ever intended.

Sen. Grassley, R-Iowa was reported to have said, “This report tells us that Congress needs to make sure that whatever it does, it should actually result in more kids having health insurance, rather than simply shifting children from private to public health insurance.”

And, we Wisconsinites have more adults in the SCHIP program than children. If that were the intent, wouldn’t it be better called SAHIP…the State Adult Health Insurance Program?

Yet another perversion of a well-intended program that leads one to ask…”This makes us want government run health care why?”