By a vote of 273-156, an attempt to override President Bush’s veto of expanded funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) failed on Thursday. The tally left Democrats 13 votes short of the two-thirds majority of 286 needed to override the third veto of the Bush presidency. Two-thirds of the U.S. Senate would also have had to vote for the funding in order to overturn the veto, but 67 Senators had already voted for the bill, H.R. 976, on September 27.
A CBS News poll released on Wednesday showed that 81% of Americans favor expanding SCHIP, which provides health insurance for children in families who do not qualify for the low-income Medicaid program, yet cannot afford private coverage.
Fully funding and expanding the program would have added $35 billion to the plan over five years, insuring an additional four million children. Hundreds of thousands of children will now lose their health coverage - including basic check-ups and immunizations - when the program expires on November 15th, unless Congress acts to extend the program for a few months. Given the rising cost of health care, current funding is not enough to sustain all of the children already enrolled in SCHIP.
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For the latest updates on SCHIP, visit the website at GoIAM.org.
