SCHIP Expansion Okayed

Wednesday saw President Obama moving towards fulfilling another of his promises. He signed bill HR 2 into law. This bill expands the reach of SCHIP to 4 million additional children. This according to President Obama is the beginning of his goal of universal health coverage. The final bill was earlier cleared by the house 290 to 135 in favor of the bill.

In the absence of congressional action SCHIP was set to expire on March 31 this year. According to the provisions of the bill families with incomes of upto thrice the federal poverty level qualify for this program for their children. In New York and New Jersey even children from higher income families will be able to qualify for this program.

States are to offer dental care through SCHIP for eligible children according to the provisions of the bill. In addition both mental and physical illnesses are required to be covered. In addition, documented immigrant children and pregnant women will no longer have to wait for 5 years to become eligible for SCHIP.

This new bill will require an additional spending of 32.8 billion spread over 4.5 years. The federal cigarette tax will be increased by 62 percent to fund this increase in SCHIP coverage.