The House on Wednesday voted to expand The Children’s Health Insurance Program to cover an additional 4.1 million uninsured children over the next 4 1/2 years, bringing the total to 11 million.

 

The measure includes an extra $32.3 billion, which will assure health coverage to children whose families make too much money to qualify for Medicaid insurance but not enough to afford private health insurance. The bill was passed by 289 votes to 139 in the House of Representatives. Most of the children who qualify for coverage are in families whose income is well under $42,400, which is twice the federal poverty level for a family of four.

 

The Children’s Health Insurance Program was launched in 1997 as a partnership between federal and state governments to provide health coverage for about 7 million children from low- income households. Now, if the Senate also votes for the legislation, an additional 4 million children will benefit from health care. On Thursday, a key Senate committee voted in favor of the legislation (12-7), giving great hopes to families who qualify for the program.

 

President-elect Barack Obama said the bill will be among the first bills he signs, calling it “not just good economic policy, but a moral obligation we hold as parents and citizens. This coverage is critical, it is fully paid for, and I hope that the Senate acts with the same sense of urgency so that it can be one of the first measures I sign into law when I am President.”

 

If voted, the legislation would raise federal taxes on tobacco taxes, including an increase of 61 cents in the tax on cigarettes to $1 a pack. I guess this legislation, if voted, will benefit children on the one hand and, on the other hand, will lower the number of Americans who smoke, as fewer and fewer will afford cigarettes. Lowering the number of smokers, there will be fewer smoking-related conditions, which, at the moment, are a burden for the US economy.

 

Representative Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, said, “Passing this bill sends a very important signal that change has come to Washington as a result of the last election.”

 

Of course, the bill has its opponents as well who fear that it would move more than two million children who currently get private insurance through their parents’ employers into government-funded care. Republican Congressman Darrell Issa is one of the opponents saying, “The priority of SCHIP should always be to serve those children most in need of assistance, not subsidize those who already have access to private insurance.”

 

Others have said that additional spending will lead to bigger taxes in the future.

 

President George W. Bush vetoed two similar bills in 2007, objecting to the tax increase and the expansion of government health care.