House Dems see political win on SCHIP

House Democratic leaders will use legislation to renew a health insurance program for children to put President Bush and congressional Republicans on the defensive once the political turbulence surrounding forthcoming reports on the Iraq war subsides and the Congress refocuses on domestic issues.

Based on new data from Stanley Greenberg, a Democratic pollster, House Democrats think a Bush veto of a bill to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) would force GOP lawmakers in politically divided districts to choose between protecting the administration and supporting uninsured children.

{mosads}The SCHIP program, created in 1997, expires Sept. 30.        

Greenberg found that 60 percent of voters would be more likely to vote for the Democratic incumbent when he or she backs the SCHIP initiative and that 40 percent would be much more likely to do so, according to a memo obtained by The Hill.

Healthcare is the highest domestic priority for Democratic base voters, and in particular unmarried women, whom Greenberg describes as “one of the most important targets for registration, turnout and base mobilization.”    

“Support for expanding access to healthcare coverage for children has very broad support and a fight on this ground promises greater energy among base voters, the further consolidation of independents with the Democrats and erosion in Republican territory,” Greenberg wrote.

“There is energy among Democrats and independent voters of equal intensity,” Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.) said. “For Republicans in marginal seats it will be very difficult to vote against a narrowly focused, kids-focused healthcare bill.”

Democratic Reps. Chet Edwards (Texas) and Jim Matheson (Utah), both of whom represent GOP-leaning districts, vocally supported the SCHIP program to win support from independent voters.

House Republicans alleged that Democrats were expanding the SCHIP program to buy off Democratic constituencies by increasing the income levels at which families would qualify for SCHIP.

“Now the Democratic majority sees a chance to use the SCHIP reauthorization to finally accomplish what the Clinton administration failed to do, put government bureaucrats in charge of everyone’s health care,” House Energy and Commerce ranking member Joe Barton (R-Texas) said yesterday in a statement.

Top Democrats do not necessarily disagree with that assessment. In April, Emanuel told an audience attending the House Judiciary Committee Congressional Forum on Universal Health Care with Single Payer Financing that the process to reauthorize SCHIP constituted “spring training” for a future political debate, assuming there is a Democratic president, over universal health insurance.

Before Democrats can force Bush’s hand, they first must reconcile the differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. Although both chambers voted to expand the program, the $50 billion House bill includes cuts to Medicare Advantage, the portion of Medicare administered by private insurers, and other provisions in Medicare.

The Senate bill does not include those changes and costs $15 billion less. Both chambers raised the tobacco tax to finance their expanded versions of the program.  

In addition, Democrats have had a tough time moving bills to conference committees — only nine have emerged thus far — either because Republicans have objected or Democrats have struggled with internal disagreements. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) objected when Senate Democrats tried to appoint conferees on Wednesday.

Republican sources said they want assurances that cutting the Medicare Advantage program will be taken off the table before negotiations begin.

Congressional Democrats face another problem: It is unlikely they could override a Bush veto. While the Senate passed its version of the bill with a veto-proof majority, just five GOP lawmakers, Reps. Shelley Moore Capito (W. Va.), Ray LaHood (Ill.), Frank LoBiondo (N.J.), Mike Ferguson (N.J.) and Christopher Shays (Conn.), voted for the SCHIP bill.

Moreover, centrist lawmakers might be able to support a broader program financed by a higher tax on tobacco, but most objected to changes in the Medicare Advantage program.

Still, House Democrats are holding firm. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said during a House Democratic leadership meeting that she would press Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to move the bill, according to Democratic aides present at the meeting.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration issued new rules earlier this month to restrict 12 states that use SCHIP to cover middle-income but uninsured individuals.