Voinovich Supports GOP Alternative for SCHIP

Release:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator George V. Voinovich (R-OH) today voted in favor of an alternative to the pending State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) expansion legislation that will ensure all children currently enrolled in the program maintain their coverage and that provides additional funding for states to find other currently eligible children who are not enrolled in the program. The alternative failed and a final vote is expected to occur this week.

“As governor of Ohio, we were leaders in providing coverage for our children. In fact, Time Magazine declared our plan ‘one of the most intelligent in the nation,’” Sen. Voinovich said. “During our current fiscal crisis, expanding this already massive program that the federal government cannot pay for in its current state is irresponsible. And to do so with an unreliable tobacco tax is not realistic.”

Sen. Voinovich added that the underlying bill would expand coverage to children living in families early up to $62,000 a year in Ohio and over $88,000 a year in states like New York. This would encourage families who already have their own private coverage to drop it and rely on the federal government for their health care.

“Many of our social service programs such as Medicaid – called automatic stabilizers – are designed to automatically draw additional federal funding when the economy slows down. These programs are built to provide additional government support to those in need without legislative action. As these programs grow to provide much-needed services for those living at or near the poverty line, I am very concerned about expanding eligibility for the S-CHIP program.

“We are already having trouble paying for coverage for children living in families up to 200 percent of the poverty level. In fact, outside of the S-CHIP program, Congress is debating the need to increase federal spending in Medicaid,” Sen. Voinovich said. “Federal spending under Medicaid has increased 49 percent over the last five years and, frankly, states can’t keep up with the services currently in place.

“We cannot continue to piecemeal heath care reform. We need to design a system where all Americans have health insurance as well as true ownership of a portable policy that they can take from job to job. People shouldn’t have to worry about how they’re going to care for their families when facing the loss of a job or in making the decision to pursue another job.”

Sen. Voinovich explained that, as a nation, we are already spending roughly $2 trillion a year on health care – more than any country in the world and 16 percent of our GDP. Our results, however, are average at best, with 47 million Americans still uninsured. Consequently, he continues to push for passage of his bi-partisan, bi-cameral Health Partnership Act (HPA).

HPA would authorize grants to individual states, groups of states, Indian tribes and organizations to carry out a broad range of strategies to increase health care coverage, ensure patients receive high-quality appropriate care, improve the efficiency of health spending and use Information Technology (IT) to improve infrastructure and reduce costs.

The Republican alternative included:

The failed alternative included a nearly five-year reauthorization of the S-CHIP program that would: protect coverage for all children currently enrolled in the S-CHIP program; provide funding for states to improve outreach and enroll the children already eligible for S-CHIP but not enrolled in the program understanding that more funding may be needed in the future; and eliminate coverage for adults that have been added to the program in some states.

Sen. Voinovich has for years called for an overhaul of our entitlement programs so we can work harder and smarter and do more with less. The senator’s Securing America’s Future Economy (SAFE) Commission Act would establish a national commission to examine our nation’s tax code and entitlement systems and present long-term solutions to place the United States on a fiscally sustainable course and ensure the solvency of entitlement programs for future generations. He also hopes President Obama will support such a commission.

The national debt now stands at $9.8 trillion. CBO estimates that the federal government finished the 2008 Fiscal Year with a budget deficit of $455 billion – the largest deficit in our nation’s history, with the next three largest deficits occurring in 2003, 2004 and 2005. This figure, however, does not include borrowing from the Social Security Trust Fund and other trust funds to the tune of $186 billion. This makes the real operating deficit $641 billion – almost three times the $219 billion deficit projected at the start of 2008. And once the economic stimulus bill Congress is working on is finished, which currently is over $800 billion, the deficit will explode even further.