The US House Democrats fail to override the President's veto of SCHIP.
"Unfortunately, House Republicans chose party loyalty over kids." That's the feeling of Congressman Ron Kind (D-La Crosse), who voted unsuccessfully to override President George Bush's veto of legislation that would have expanded the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP. The House came up 13 votes short of the 286 needed for the override.
"So the real question is how long do some of these Republican in the House want to go down with this president and vote merely for party loyalty reasons as oppose to the best interest of our children in this country?"
SCHIP works through states to cover children from families earning too much to qualify for Medicaid, but too little to afford private insurance. In Wisconsin, SCHIP funds BadgerCare.
"And what I'm saying is let's build on the success of that program. And if we were to pass this legislation and override the president's veto we could literally extend additional coverage to 63,000 kids in Wisconsin alone."
Kind eases some concern about illegal immigrants taking advantage of the program, saying they are excluded.
It costs $35-billion a year over five years to fund SCHIP, to bring coverage to approximately 10-million children in need.
Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Janesville) says Republicans want every child to have good, reliable health coverage, but he supports the President's veto, saying Congress should not be expanding this program to people who already have insurance. In signing the veto, Bush said he wants to make sure the really poor kids have health care coverage.
AUDIO: Jackie Johnson report (1:45 MP3)
