The Heritage Foundation: Children's Health Care/SCHIP

September 9, 2008
SCHIP: How Congress Can Avoid Repeating Last Year's Mistakes
By Dennis G. Smith
(Backgrounder #2180)
Congress can return SCHIP to its original focus on uninsured low-income children by setting a firm cap on eligibility that applies to both SCHIP and ...

July 16, 2008
SCHIP Reauthorization: Preparing for Another Round in Congress
By Dennis G. Smith
(WebMemo #1994)
In the coming weeks, Congress may once again debate the reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). By doing so, Congressional leaders would ...

February 12, 2008
The President's Proposals for Medicaid and SCHIP: One Step Forward, One Step Back
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1806)
Congress should embrace the President's proposals for Medicaid but reject the increase in SCHIP spending.

December 6, 2007
Expanding SCHIP: Not the Best Option for States
By Edmund F. Haislmaier and Greg D’Angelo
(WebMemo #1725)
The congressional proposal to expand eligibility for SCHIP would aggravate budget challenges that state governments will face in the coming years.

December 3, 2007
The SCHIP Bill: Why the Premium Assistance Provisions Won’t Work
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1717)
Congress should create a premium assistance program that empowers parents to make decisions for their children with regard to health care coverage.

December 3, 2007
The SCHIP Negotiations: A Backdoor Approach to Expanding Medicaid to the Middle Class?
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1716)
Congress must prevent the expansion of welfare into the middle class by capping eligibility for both SCHIP and Medicaid.

December 3, 2007
SCHIP Expansion: More Birth Control for Minors, Less Involvement by Parents
By Daniel Patrick Moloney
(WebMemo #1715)
This legislation would help make contraception available to millions of children while prohibiting doctors and schools from informing the children’s parents.

December 3, 2007
SCHIP Bill Increases Illegal Immigrants' Access to Medicaid and Undermines Welfare Reform
By Robert E. Rector
(WebMemo #1714)
The SCHIP reauthorization bill increases opportunities for welfare fraud.

November 28, 2007
Health Care Tax Credits: The Best Way to Advance Affordability, Choice, and Coverage
By Greg D'Angelo
(WebMemo #1711)
Health care tax credits coupled with other state reforms would go a long way toward improving affordability and reducing the ranks of the uninsured.

November 7, 2007
No Way Out: The Fruitless SCHIP Negotiations
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1698)
Efforts to reach a compromise on SCHIP are unlikely to resolve the fundamental problems with the House bill.

November 2, 2007
SCHIP Will Not Improve Quality of Kids' Health Care
By John S. O’Shea, M.D.
(WebMemo #1687)
SCHIP has not performed well in terms of stable coverage, access to primary care and preventive services, and the quality of care.

October 30, 2007
The More Children, More Choices Act of 2007: Middle-Class Tax Relief for Families with Kids
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1681)
Congress has a chance to accomplish the same level of health coverage without disrupting the existing coverage of families with children.

October 29, 2007
The Revised SCHIP Bill: Still Bad Health Policy
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1680)
The new version does not correct the deficiencies of the original.

October 1, 2007
SCHIP Plus a Tax Credit: A Compromise Health Insurance Plan for Kids
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D. and Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1652)
Congress should fashion a bipartisan compromise that aims to expand coverage for the uninsured while preserving coverage for families that already have it.

September 24, 2007
SCHIP: Crafting a Better Compromise to Cover Kids
By Nina Owcharenko and Stuart Butler
(WebMemo #1635)
House and Senate leaders should negotiate a more balanced compromise that aims to expand access to private health coverage for uninsured children.

September 20, 2007
Why Families Should Be Concerned about SCHIP
By Connie Marshner
(WebMemo #1630)
Congress should keep SCHIP focused on uninsured children from low-income families and broaden the options available to middle-income families whose children are uninsured.

September 19, 2007
SCHIP and "Crowd-Out": The High Cost of Expanding Eligibility
By Paul L. Winfree and Greg D'Angelo
(WebMemo #1627)
Expanding SCHIP to cover children in higher income families is not an efficient or cost-effective way to reduce the number of uninsured children.

August 29, 2007
The House SCHIP Bill: Enlisting States as Agents of Government Dependency
By Cheryl S. Smith
(WebMemo #1593)
For the sake of taxpayers and the truly needy, Congress must reject budget gimmicks that will turn SCHIP into a permanent, open-ended entitlement program.

August 27, 2007
The Administration's SCHIP Regulations: A Sound Prescription
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1591)
The Bush Administration moves to restore SCHIP's focus on low-income children.

August 14, 2007
Expanding SCHIP Will Challenge State Finances: A State-by-State Analysis
By Greg D’Angelo, Michelle C. Bucci, and Marcus Newland
(WebMemo #1586)
State-by-state numbers on how Congress's SCHIP expansion plans would hit state budgets.

August 1, 2007
The House SCHIP Bill: Cutting Medicare, Undercutting Private Coverage, and Expanding Dependency
By Cheryl Smith with Robert E. Moffit
(WebMemo #1580)
Congress should stake out an entirely different policy that centers on reaffirming the original intent of the law, expanding private coverage, and preserving choice for ...

July 31, 2007
Health Care Tax Credits: The Right Prescription for Expanded Health Care Coverage
By JD Foster
(WebMemo #1579)
Expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program would be a step toward a government-run health care system. Instead, Congress should consider tax policy changes that ...

July 30, 2007
Senate SCHIP Bill Makes a Mockery of PAYGO Budget Rules
By Brian M. Riedl
(WebMemo #1576)
Turning their backs on a campaign promise, Senate Democrats have proposed a bill that would put into motion $60 billion in new deficit spending over ...

July 30, 2007
Beyond SCHIP: A Serious Proposal to Reduce Uninsurance
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.d.
(WebMemo #1577)
A bold and innovative proposal would reduce the number of uninsured by an estimated 24 million by eliminating the unfairness of the federal tax treatment ...

July 23, 2007
Redesigning SCHIP to Strengthen Private Health Insurance for Working Families
By Nina Owcharenko and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1564)
A proposal from the Senate Finance Committee to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program would displace private health care coverage. In legislation to reauthorize ...

July 16, 2007
The Phantom Economic Benefits of SCHIP Expansion
By JD Foster, Ph.D., and Michael Lumley
(WebMemo #1557)
An advocacy group's study showing economic gains from SCHIP expansion is based on faulty premises.

July 11, 2007
22 Million New Smokers Needed: Funding SCHIP Expansion with a Tobacco Tax
By Michelle C. Bucci and William W. Beach
(WebMemo #1548)
Rather than making SCHIP dependent on increasing the number of smokers, Congress should refrain from narrow government program expansions and work on a broader strategy ...

July 9, 2007
Expanding SCHIP into AMT Territory: SCHIP Plan Would Extend Welfare to Wealthy Families
By Rea S. Hederman, Jr.
(WebMemo #1546)
A proposed expansion of the children's health care program would provide subsidies to families so wealthy that they pay the AMT.

July 9, 2007
SCHIP Reauthorization: Congress Should Beware of Creating a New Entitlement
By Nicola Moore and JD Foster, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1540)
Congress ought to focus on addressing the entitlement spending problem it has already created. Expanding yet another federal healthcare program would be reckless, risky, and ...

June 27, 2007
The State Children's Health Insurance Program: High Stakes for American Families
By Connie Marshner and Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1528)
Congress must strengthen private sector options in SCHIP to reduce dependency on government, restore parental responsibility, and protect taxpayers.

June 21, 2007
SCHIP and "Crowd-Out": How Public Program Expansion Reduces Private Coverage
By Andrew M. Grossman and Greg D'Angelo
(WebMemo #1518)
As Congress considers expanding SCHIP up the income ladder, it should recognize that throwing more money into the program will increasingly "crowd out" private funding ...

May 24, 2007
Children's Health: SCHIP Should Not Become a Welfare Entitlement
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1473)
To protect taxpayers and preserve private sector aspects of the program, Congress must prevent the State Children's Health Insurance Program from morphing into an extension ...

May 22, 2007
Reforming SCHIP: Using Premium Assistance to Expand Coverage
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1466)
Rather than displacing private coverage with a government-run plan, Congress should empower families to make their own health care decisions and set the stage for ...

May 21, 2007
The Future of SCHIP: Family Freedom or Government Control?
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1464)
Expanding SCHIP eligibility would be a big mistake, chipping away at private coverage and placing a great burden on taxpayers.

May 2, 2007
Fixing SCHIP and Expanding Children's Health Care Coverage
By Nina Owcharenko
(Backgrounder #2029)
Instead of moving the State Children’s Health Insurance Program closer to becoming an entitlement, increasing the fiscal burden on the states and taxpayers and crowding ...

March 5, 2007
The Truth About SCHIP Shortfalls
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1381)
Congress should resist rewarding states that have ignored SCHIP's intent and exceeded its scope.

March 5, 2007
Health Insurance for Uninsured Children: Doing Health Care Right
By Nina Owcharenko
(Heritage Lecture #997)
The lack of health insurance among children is important, as it is for all uninsured. Policy for children should be family-oriented, and one of the ...

February 7, 2007
The President's Budget: Improving Medicaid and SCHIP
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1348)
The President’s budget for Medicaid and SCHIP provides policymakers with a rational and positive roadmap for the future for these programs.

December 5, 2006
Keeping the State Children's Health Care Program Focused on Federal Objectives
By Nina Owcharenko
(Heritage Lecture #980)
During the upcoming SCHIP reauthorization debate, federal lawmakers have the responsibility to evaluate both the effectiveness of the program's funding and the soundness of the ...

Commentary

October 19, 2007
How to Insure Kids (Once the Shouting Dies Down)
Get Together on S-Chip
By Michael Franc

Move over, Iraq war. There's another issue in town that raises the temperature of the body politic: Children's health care.

October 18, 2007
Compromise, Congress
Get Together on S-Chip
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.

Congress is hell-bent on passing a massive expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP). The program was originally designed to help children in low-income working families, but lawmakers would push eligibility for this form of public assistance higher into the upper reaches of the middle-income scale. President Bush, meanwhile, has pledged to hold the line against a massive spending increase that will displace the existing private health coverage for millions of families, add to current and future tax burdens, and transform -- over time -- a limited welfare program into the equivalent of another middle-class entitlement.

October 16, 2007
Left Loves S-CHIP
By Ernest Istook

Big government pays for many things. One side-effect is the enrichment of groups who get the money, enabling them to afford more lobbying on behalf of even bigger government. Now they've joined the most brazen voices of the liberal Left in the S-CHIP debate.

October 8, 2007
Children: The New Political Prop
By Israel Ortega

It was quite the spectacle the other day in front of the White House. Children as young as seven turned up to protest, begging the president not to veto an expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or S-CHIP. But their pleas fell on deaf ears, and the veto happened anyway.

October 8, 2007
After SCHIP: Building a Healthy System for Kids
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.

Now that President Bush has vetoed a plan that would have greatly expanded the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, it's time to skip the recriminations and get busy crafting a compromise that actually works.

October 8, 2007
How to Help the Kids
By Robert B. Bluey

Nobody in Washington likes to compromise, but when it comes to helping poor kids, you'd think politicians would choose solutions instead of spin. Think again.

October 3, 2007
A Better Way to Achieve Health Care for Needy Kids
By Michael Franc

Congress has two options, now that President Bush has vetoed its effort to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) well beyond the original purpose of providing health insurance to poor children.

September 24, 2007
Dust Off the Veto Pen
By Robert B. Bluey

Alan Greenspan's criticism of the administration's fiscal record couldn't have come at a better time. The former Federal Reserve chairman's autobiography, "The Age of Turbulence," lays into President Bush and congressional Republicans for their free-spending ways. The criticism seems to have emboldened Bush just as Democrats challenge him on taxes and spending.

September 22, 2007
Proof that SCHIP Could Destroy Healthcare
By Michael Franc

The future of America's health-care system may be at stake in the battle over the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

September 11, 2007
Moffit Responds to Krugman Column in The New York Times
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.

Paul Krugman's op-ed column "A Socialist Plot" (Aug. 27) argues that, since we already enroll millions of middle- and upper-class children in government schools, we should enroll them in government health programs as well.

September 3, 2007
Heritage Foundation: State Health Program Fails Children
By John O’Shea, M.D.

It's hardly controversial to point out that all children deserve access to the best available health care, regardless of their economic circumstances. Unfortunately, if Congress has its way, our country will actually move further away from that ideal.

September 3, 2007
S-CHIP expansion is not about 'the children'
By Andrew Grossman and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.

Washington's rhetoric often fails to match reality, a truism reaffirmed by Congress' recent move to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP), a 10-year-old program created for kids in low-income families.

September 3, 2007
HillaryCare on the Horizon
By Robert B. Bluey

Topping the Democrats' to-do list when they return to Washington this week is reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The House and Senate passed two different versions of the bill before August recess and now must reconcile the legislation before the program expires at month's end.

August 16, 2007
SCHIP: A Better Diagnosis
By Rebecca Hagelin

The only thing worse than being against baseball, Mom or apple pie is being "anti-kid."

July 28, 2007
SCHIP: A Step Towards Socialism
By Michael Franc

During the heady days of 1993 when former First Lady Hillary Clinton assembled a group of health experts to reconfigure our health-care system, liberal strategists realized that the march toward socialized medicine might be a slow and halting one. Thus, they devised several alternate routes to the promised land of a universal, government-run system. Intriguingly, one of these fall-back scenarios bears an uncanny resemblance to the dramatic expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) now under consideration on Capitol Hill.

July 28, 2007
Senate Health Reform: Paying More to Help Fewer
By Robert Moffit and Greg D'Angelo

Among other proposals, the Senate is eying two plans to provide health coverage to those currently lacking insurance. Plan 1 would extend coverage to around 4 million Americans for billions of dollars. Plan 2 would extend coverage to 24 million for no more than we're spending now. Guess which approach Senate leaders are pushing?

July 26, 2007
The Middle-Class Welfare Kid Next Door
By Robert Moffit and Greg D'Angelo

Imagine three families with something surprising in common. Matt and Elizabeth Cuneo and their two children live in Hartford, Conn. Matt makes $38,290 a year as a private investigator; Elizabeth, a state legislator, earns $32,730.

March 29, 2007
It's time for a dose of reality in federal health-care spending
By Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D.

"If something's free, I'll take two," a mentor of mine once said. His point was that people don't value things they don't pay for, especially things the government "gives" them.

Heritage Foundation Leadership for America

Commentary

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