SCHIP compromise fails again

A November 8 deadline to find a compromise in the long-standing efforts to renew and expand the States Children's Health Insurance Program (Marketletters passim) has passed without any resolution from the US House of Representatives. With President George W Bush having vowed to veto any move to raise the SCHIP entitlement threshold to 300% of the federal poverty line, as well as the proposal to fund the additional cost with a hike in tobacco taxes, the Democrat-controlled Congress has been attempting to secure enough support from the minority Republicans to get the two-thirds majority needed for a veto override.

One idea being touted would be to limit the expansion of the SCHIP's qualification threshold to 250% of the federal poverty line to states where the targeted number of households had been met for under 200% of poverty levels.