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Lott-McConnell SCHIP Proposal Would Fail to Make Progress in Covering Uninsured Children |
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From Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: Preliminary CBO estimates show, however, that under the Lott-McConnell proposal, only a net of 700,000 children who would otherwise be uninsured would be covered in 2012. In other words, the overall coverage gains under the Lott-McConnell proposal are less than the gains just from ensuring that states can maintain their current children's enrollment in SCHIP (without making any progress in covering more uninsured children). In fact, the CBO estimates indicate that about 200,000 children who would otherwise be covered through SCHIP in 2012 would instead be uninsured, due to these restrictions. The proposal also would effectively prohibit the relatively small number of states that now do so from continuing to use SCHIP funds to provide health insurance to low-income parents of children who are enrolled in Medicaid or SCHIP. The proposal would establish Association Health Plans, which are likely to provoke adverse selection in the small group market. Most of the remaining uninsured individuals --- more than six of every seven --- are in the 10 percent or 15 percent tax bracket and thus would receive only a 10 percent or 15 percent subsidy on the cost of their health insurance. The HSA proposal would be likely to weaken employer-based coverage by encouraging some employers to no longer offer health insurance to their workers. It poorly targets the SCHIP funds that it provides and would cause substantial funds to revert unspent to the Treasury even as some states were being compelled to cut back their programs due a to lack of adequate federal resources. Jonathan Gruber, "The Cost and Coverage Impact of the President's Health Insurance Budget Proposals," Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, February 15, 2006.
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