SCHIP

I'm not surprised by the msm's distortion of the expansion of SCHIP. SCHIP bill simply goes too far toward federalizing health care. It turns a program meant to help low-income children into one that covers children in some households with incomes of up to $83,000 a year.

We all know what happens with federal programs. They never go away, they only expand. This is the problem I have with so many social programs. What starts as something we can all agree on to help the poor, just gets expanded to middle income. And the government bureaucracy always creates openings for billions of dollars in fraud (see welfare).

Powerline says this:

Now, however, it looks like Sen. Martinez has come up with a proposal that bridges the gap, and has the support of conservative activists such as Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, as well as the White House. The Republican plan is based on is based on a Heritage Foundation proposal. It's two key main elements are:

(a) Reauthorize SCHIP for eligible children, thereby covering children in families with incomes at or below 200% of the federal poverty level.

(b) Enact a child health care tax credit for families with incomes between 200% and 300% of the poverty level.

The virtue of this plan is it covers the population targeted by the Democrats, but instead of forcing them to drop their current coverage and go on a government plan, it provides assistance to enable them to keep their current insurance plan.

And he has this:

UPDATE: An excellent discussion of SCHIP can be found in this paper by health care policy expert David Hogberg, written for The National Center for Policy Research. Its apt title is: "SCHIP Expansion: Socialized Medicine on the Installment Plan."