Rocky has so far saved the Children's Health Insurance Program from being swallowed up by the mysterious but probably pretty crappy health care to be forced on poor families in the new health care system's 'health insurance exchanges'. He has got Reid's bill to preserve CHIP till 2019! Not that it was just Rocky. Good on yah to Marian Wright Edelman too, and the Children's Defense Fund, who are fighting for CHIP and children too. And Cynthia Tucker:

. . . the [new health insurance] exchanges might easily be more expensive. Yes, many families would be eligible for subsidies; but there is no guarantee the policies for their children would be as affordable, or as comprehensive, as they are under the CHIP programs.

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"I don't think there's any reason to dismantle a program that works."
-- Senator Jay Rockefeller, on the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

Though Jay Rockefeller saved CHIP in the Senate Finance committee version of health insurance reform, the House version has gotten rid of it. As pointed out in the Charleston Gazette, moving children into the insurance exchanges (those with parents who can afford to do that, you'd be out of luck if your parents can't afford health insurance) means these kids' health care gets much more costly and covers much less:

If the children were moved to private insurance, their parents would also pay significantly more in premiums and out-of-pocket expense, according to an actuarial study by financial consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide.

Using data from 17 states, researchers found that, at 175 to 225 percent of poverty, parents of CHIP children paid up to 2 percent of their child's treatment. If the same children were transferred to private plans, their parents would pay between 5 and 35 percent of the cost of care.

"Most of these parents are working people who are counting dollars," said Renate Pore, health care analyst for the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy. Families eligible for CHIP make too much to be eligible for Medicaid, but not enough to afford private insurance, she said.

"CHIP is the stronger coverage package, and we are very concerned about the idea that those kids would be moved over without some protection," said Bruce Lesley, director of First Focus, the national child advocacy group that commissioned the actuarial study.

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The Children's Health Insurance Program is that rarest of government creations -- a joint federal-state effort that actually works to reduce the number of uninsured children in our country. No wonder Congressional leaders are trying to expand it -- and the White House is trying to dismantle it.

The question for us is this: will our Congressman join the bi-partisan effort to strengthen CHIP? Or will he stick with the short-sighted ideological opposition of the Bush Administration and leave millions of children without health insurance?

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