SCHIP Travesty Will Prevail if Bush Doesn't Veto...

The SCHIP debacle continues in Washington. There have been too many gullible Republicans who went along with this who apparently were frightened to death of the “sound bite” about them hating children.

Children would now be defined as people under age 25. That would happen in all states, and we know that many would continue the perversion of including adults as well. Remember that Wisconsin now spends 75% of its funding on adults, not children!

The income level provisions of this travesty have been increased to 400% of the federal poverty level, up from 200%. That is more than $80,000 for a family of four! Imagine just how many employers will appear on the next BadgerCare “embarrassment list” with that income benchmark in place.

SCHIP would become a permanent entitlement program whereas it has been forced through periodic re-authorization up until now. Imagine how this entitlement will spin out-of-control if the President would sign the bill.

Funding comes from a diverse group:

We all understand that the tax on tobacco products will increase in order to pay for this largesse. That goose will die off quickly enough, so many other sources will ultimately be tapped.

We didn’t know, however, that private insurance policies would be taxed as well. This “fair share” tax would begin at $375 million in year one, but we all know that number will pale in comparison to what we’ll see in five years and beyond. This on top of the "crowding out" of private insurance plans every time a person elects to be part of their state's SCHIP. Seems that "big insurance" was squarely in the cross hairs as the Democrats sought to incrementally increase the numbers of people on "government run health programs".

And, Congress "bravely" takes on the senior lobby by taking money away from the successful Medicare Advantage program that is now used by some 8 million seniors in lieu of regular Medicare plans. The CBO analysis indicates that as many as 3 million of the current users will be forced out of the programs by the funding reductions. These programs were, of course, made possible by insurers coming to the table as the original program intended to secure better levels of coverage and coverage in outlying areas. "Big insurance" was again in the cross hairs without regard to the seniors who were enrolled in this better deal.

The private sector is about to take a big hit from the liberals.

It is imperative that we let President Bush know we want him to hold his position and veto this abomination when it finds its way to his desk. It appears that his veto has a good chance of standing given that the House passed its version by just 225 to 204. Many congressional representatives would have to reverse their positions in order to sustain a veto.

In the meantime, each of us must contact our elected representatives who voted for this travesty to advise that we are disgusted with their work product and to assure them that we’ll remember through multiple election cycles. And, we need to talk with those who voted the right way so they aren't frightened into changing their vote if the President vetoes the bill.

SCHIP Expansion is Wolf in Sheep's Clothing...

How does this continue to happen? How can people continue to have the wool (no pun intended) pulled over their eyes…other than by willful ignorance?

The threat of Presidential veto of the newly proposed SCHIP expansion has again met with the usual press reports. He is denying the poor children their rightful coverage, etc., etc. It is interesting that, even with the Bush-bashing that has gone on for years, the current Congress rates even lower amongst the general population.

This is not about the children! The truth of this matter is simply that this expansion of SCHIP (BadgerCare in Wisconsin) is a ploy to include more adults in the program rather than more children. The additional children we all want in this program can be afforded under the President’s proposed SCHIP increase. But, in order to pervert this well-performing program, those who would see government-run healthcare are using this program as their “Trojan Horse”.

They reason that by adding multiple billions of dollars, more and more states (like Wisconsin that already uses 75% of the current funding to bring adults into the program) can use the increased funding to apply to adults. This happens as the qualifying poverty-level income multiples are increased. This permits people earning far in excess of poverty-level incomes to participate in government-funded health care plans. As this group increases, the private sector health plans lose more and more people…exactly what those who seek a total single payer system desire.

This is back-door socialism. It appears there are enough ignorant Republicans who’ve signed on to support this travesty to at least have gotten this through the Senate. Among those Republicans is Sen. Hatch (R-Utah) who spoke at the Capital Conference hosted by the National Association of Health Underwriters early in 2007. He spoke eloquently as to how this perversion wouldn’t be permitted to happen. He must’ve found some politically-expedient reason for supporting it. This “go along to get along” mentality is a serious threat to us conservatives. And, any number of liberal Democrats and middle-of-the-road Republicans are happy.

As an aside, the tobacco tax increase that has been included as the funding mechanism will succeed in putting cigars out of the reach of mere mortals. With the tax increase going from the capped amount of $0.05 per cigar to a capped amount of $10.00 per cigar, only the “fat cats” will puff cigars. This staggering Federal increase coupled with the hefty cigarette/cigar tax increases added by many states, will effectively kill that industry. Tobacco is a legal product by the way. This reeks of hypocrisy…but why should any of us be surprised at that?

That “industry” is the goose laying all these golden eggs, and it will be killed by the “do-gooders”. We’ll then all awaken to find ourselves taxed to cover the certain budgetary shortfalls thus created by these mandated programs. Back-door socialism will have created government-run health care and we’ll be unable to do anything about it.

This must be headed off in the House of Representatives even with President Bush’s stated position of vetoing the bill in its present form.

BadgerCare Publishes List to Embarrass Employers...

Wisconsin offers its version of the SCHIP programs called BadgerCare as we’ve discussed previously. Wisconsin has received approval from the federal Department of Health and Human Services to offer BadgerCare to adults as well as to the children for which the program was originally intended.

As a matter of fact, The DHHS Secretary, Michael Leavitt, points out that 75% of the Wisconsin program’s funds are spent on adults. Another tidbit is that Wisconsin covers nearly twice as many adults as children. Not bad for a children’s health program, huh?

Since the state wants to embarrass employers with employees participating in BadgerCare, we’ll certainly assist by adding the link to the list at http://dhfs.wisconsin.gov/badgercare/pdfs/employers0307.pdf .

Obviously, since “everyone” hates Wal-Mart from what I read in the news, Wal-Mart is at the top of this nasty list with 897 employees. Never mind that Wal-Mart employs more than 27,800 people in Wisconsin, just ridicule them for this 3.2% that managed to obtain BadgerCare.

How could that happen? Well, BadgerCare has established some rules that may explain this “unintended consequence”. First, if an employer offers its employees health insurance coverage but doesn’t pay at least 80% of the premium cost, the employee may be eligible. If the employee is earning less than 185% of the federal poverty level, then that person and his or her dependents are eligible for BadgerCare.

How much is 185% of the federal poverty level? For a single person, it is $1,574 per month. For a husband and wife with two children, it is $3,183 per month. For a family of 8, it is $5,329 per month.

Could it be that BadgerCare is too permissive in its attempts to cover children (when nearly twice as many adults as kids are covered)? Could it be that the 80% level of premium contribution placed on employers is too high? Could it be that BadgerCare is intended to bring as much federal largess into our state as possible (ignoring that we over-taxed Badgers are also paying federal taxes)?

Oh, and another thing! Among the culprit employers are these:

The United States Postal Service
The YMCA
Goodwill Industries
The State of Wisconsin

National Association of Health Underwriters Offers SCHIP Position...

Congress is currently in the midst of reauthorizing the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), the state/federal block grant program that funds health insurance coverage for low-income children. It is this program that funds Wisconsin's BadgerCare plan for children. The National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU) feels that during the reauthorization process, Congress has a great opportunity to make it simpler for states to voluntarily use SCHIP dollars to subsidize private group coverage for eligible children who have access to such private coverage through their parent's employer.

Doing so would have the following benefits:

More families would accept employer-sponsored coverage for their children, lowering the number of uninsured children.

The administrative burden on low-income families would be lessened, as families could be covered together on the same health insurance plan.

It would reduce the “crowd-out” of the private market that occurs when parents decline employer-sponsored coverage in favor of SCHIP coverage for their dependents.

It would lower costs by taking advantage of any premium dollars employers are willing to contribute toward their eligible employee dependent premiums—money that is now often “left on the table.”

It would also reduce SCHIP costs because the risk associated with covering the children with employer-sponsored coverage would be borne by the private market plan rather than the public program.

Licensed health insurance producers, who are already helping millions of business owners purchase health insurance coverage for their employees nationally, could provide outreach and enrollment assistance at virtually no cost to the SCHIP program.

We believe this is a wise approach and urge that our state Senators and Representatives give careful consideration to these points.

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?”

State Children's Health Insurance Programs: Follow Up

The earlier Blog covering this subject discussed the incremental approach to government run health care and cited the use of the Children's program to cover adults.

Sen. Olympia Snow of Maine (supposedly a Republican but actually a RINO) introduced legislation Thursday to double the funding of this program over the next five years. This flies in the face of the real Republicans who wanted the funding levels reduced to end the improper use of the program using the purse strings.

She was joined in sponsoring this legislation by Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Teddy Kennedy (D-Mass.)

While they were at it, they seized on this opportunity to also increase the coverage afforded under the SCHIP program to include mental and dental health care. This is such a good example of incrementalism, I couldn't help but post an update.

If There Is Any Doubt About Government-run Healthcare...

We need simply look at the gyrations occurring in Congress as the “great debate” over SCHIP and Medicare Advantage takes place to see exactly where we’ll be if Healthy Wisconsin were to become the law in Badgerland.

SCHIP is being re-engineered to bring in more and more adults and to permit families of four earning over $80,000 per year to join. This is a very obvious expansion of government-run healthcare.

Medicare Advantage funding is being threatened because it represents an incursion of the private sector into the world of government-run healthcare (Medicare) that is a threat to all those whose goal is just that…government-run healthcare.

Doctors in Medicare would be favored by some of money freed up by the reductions in Medicare Advantage while SCHIP would get the rest because there simply isn’t enough money to go around even with huge increases in tobacco taxes. Medicare Advantage could disappear as the direct result of this move. In this instance, oldsters who had selected Medicare Advantage will be forced back into Medicare parts A & B with lesser benefits available to them at higher costs. This subtle form of rationing should give us all pause. Future forms of rationing promise to be far less subtle.

Politicians running healthcare is oxymoronic. They will be unable to resist the temptations of all that power…and you and I will suffer…just as those on Medicare Advantage programs are about to suffer. What will it be next? Will it be mandatory health prevention as suggested by one presidential aspirant? What will happen with all that data that is collected? And then where will it go? Will we ultimately see consciously controlled death rates since death is less expensive than living with and treating a disease? That happens in single payer countries around the world today. What makes us think that it wouldn’t happen here as well?

State Children's Health Insurance Programs

State children's health insurance programs have been around under a federal mandate for some 10 years. The mandate needs to be re-visited and that has been going on in earnest in Washington, D.C. since the beginning of this year.

These programs were originally intended to help the states provide health insurance to needy children whose parents weren't poor enough to qualify for Medicaid. As is too often the case when federal money is available, some states have been very creative with these "children's" programs. One lament over these programs was the fact that so many children remained uncovered. These states have decided that they'd be able to attract more children if they could permit people with incomes of two to three times the poverty level to enroll their children.

There were, according to the powers that be, still too many uncovered children. So, it was decided that the parents needed to be brought into the "children's" program since they would enroll for the coverage...and would enroll their children for coverage, too. The SCHIP costs grew accordingly.

During the ongoing debate over future funding of these programs, several states have been complaining that they're out of money and need stopgap funding in order to avoid disrupting these programs.

Among these states are Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. These four states cover more adults than children! According to a Wall Street Journal editorial on April 24th, Minnesota spent 92% of its grant insuring adults. Arizona spent two-thirds of its grant the same way.

We are witnessing the incremental creation of government-run health care without the pain and suffering of voting on the issues. These deals were concocted in the halls of Congress and no one appears to have understood the concept of unintended consequences. Or...they did understand and knowingly circumvented the will of the people to achieve what they weren't able to otherwise accomplish with HillaryCare.