Hatch Digs in Heels on Funding for CHIP

None by KCPW

White House Asks for Hatch's Help

(KCPW News) Utah Senator Orrin Hatch has crossed swords with President Bush repeatedly in recent weeks over the children's health insurance program, or CHIP. Hatch is a sponsor of the bill and insists it needs at least 35-billion new dollars to cover uninsured kids. The President disagrees, but now Hatch says the White House is asking for his help on a compromise:

"I said 'Sure, I'll be happy to help,' but I don't want to undermine the CHIP bill that's worked so well and our friends in the House have acted in good faith," says Hatch. "And frankly I think it's too late for a major alternative."

Hatch says he will not settle for anything less than a 35-billion dollar expansion of CHIP, in contrast to the President's plan for only 5-billion new dollars. And Hatch praises House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and leading Democrats for compromises they've already made to satisfy conservative House members.

Now Hatch says they'll have to go further. And says he'll support lowering the income threshold:

"I think we can be in favor of locking definite ceilings on who qualifies here - and the emphasis ought to be on the 200-percent of poverty, or less," says Hatch. "And frankly, 95-percent of the kids who qualify for this program will be under 200-percent of poverty."

Hatch says the tobacco lobby played a role in preventing the House from overriding the President's veto. The bill proposes a sixty-cent increase in the cigarette tax to help cover more uninsured children with CHIP. Hatch says there's no other funding alternative for the program.

He expects another revision of the CHIP expansion program to be ready for debate within a week.

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