When the Republicans authorized the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in 1997, they created a program to provide health insurance to low-income children. In Idaho, this essential program has given thousands of vulnerable children access to healthcare. Shamefully, at the expense of these very children, Democrats’ reauthorization of this critical program has lost sight of the program’s purpose. While SCHIP was originally designed to cover poor children, this new bill radically expands coverage to virtually anybody— including illegal aliens.
 
By removing all requirements that recipients provide proof of citizenship or legal residency, the bill forces hard-working American taxpayers to foot the bill for healthcare for those who have violated our nation’s laws. At a time when we should be working to improve border security and enforce our immigration laws, passing a bill that actually incentivizes more individuals to break the law and enter our country illegally is absurd. The cost of providing these benefits to illegal aliens could reach into the hundreds of billions annually.
 
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that 13% of funds for the Children’s Health Insurance Program already go to pay for adults. For example, 87% of SCHIP enrollees in Minnesota are adults. Illinois has enrolled over 175,000 adults in its Children’s Health Program. Under the new bill, even more adults would become eligible for coverage. This bill further jeopardizes the integrity of SCHIP--a program whose very name reminds us that its primary purpose is to provide health insurance to poor children.
 
This bill allows children of families making over $82,000 a year to be eligible for SCHIP--almost twice the income of the average Idaho family. CBO estimates that over 2 million children currently covered by private health insurance would be moved onto inferior government-run health plans. Children of the richest Americans now would be eligible for government-funded health insurance. This expansion will undermine our current system of private healthcare coverage and continue to push us involuntarily into a national healthcare system. After all, if the Democrats are willing to offer coverage to millions of middle-class Americans, why should employers and small business owners cover their employees out of their own pockets?
 
Even worse, the Democrats included a stealth provision to raise taxes on every American with private insurance by charging federal premium taxes on all insurance policies. This hidden tax increase is another effort to increase private insurance rates and force Americans onto government run, bureaucrat-controlled healthcare. The Democrat bill is an underhanded, devious step towards Hillary-care: a government-run, government-mandated health insurance plan for everyone, regardless of income, age or citizenship.
 
Instead of trying to expand SCHIP to cover adults, illegal immigrants and children already covered by private insurance, we should make the existing program more effective. We should reach out to eligible low-income children not enrolled. If Democrats want to implement a national healthcare system, then Congress should have that debate, openly and publicly. However, using the Children’s Health Insurance Program to mask what amounts to a giant leap towards socialized medicine is both dishonest and devastating to low-income children, the very group we should be trying to reach.
 
When the Republicans created SCHIP in 1997, they created an important program designed to improve needy children’s access to health insurance. The Democrat bill is not about that at all. It is a massive expansion of government-run health care and a huge step towards creating a national healthcare system, which would result in lower quality and fewer choices for all Americans. This bill is bad for Idaho and bad for children.