If this is just a down payment, what are the annual premiums going to be? Can we afford to have the very capable federal government involved in healthcare? Are we crazy? Or, are just some of us crazy? I mean look at how they messed up the home mortgage industry. They on one hand regulated them so that they would give loans out to people who were not qualified, and then on the other hand they neglected to regulate the greed that there other regulations enticed.
And now they want to get there incompetent hands into the healthcare industry, God help us if that happens. How could anyone believe that the federal government knows what is best for this industry, what kind of a track record do they have?
This S-CHIP law is going to be paid for off the backs of the poor. It will be paid for with a 62 cent increase in the cigarette tax, and sense the lower income earners and the poor smoke the most, it will be them who will be paying this tax for there own healthcare, its kind of ironic in a way.
If they keep expanding federal spending on healthcare, we will need more and more smokers. They will have to start allowing smoking commercials on the Cartoon and Disney Channels in order to get a new generation of smokers; tax payers.
jbranstetter04
Illegal Immigrants and Families Making $61K Could Qualify for Federal Help Under SCHIP
Washington (CNSNews.com) The State Childrens Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), the federal program designed to extend health coverage to the nations poorest children, would allow legal immigrants and middle class children those from families making over $61,000 per year access to a program originally intended for the poorest of the poor.
Two previous versions have been vetoed by President Bush.
The bill would officially establish an income cap of 300 percent above the federal poverty line — or $61,950 per year for a family of four. However, the bill allows for states to pay SCHIP benefits at incomes higher than 300 percent above poverty if they have sate laws or plans in place to cover kids above the 300 percent mark by the time the bill is signed.
Currently, only New Jersey is allowed to cover children from such families and only New York has passed a law expanding its coverage.
If states expand their Medicaid eligibility, by raising maximum income levels, they may use the SCHIP funds they receive to provide healthcare for the children of these new Medicaid families. This means that states may use Medicaid expansions to expand CHIP eligibility, because they can cover new Medicaid children with CHIP money.
Currently, nine states have expanded their Medicaid eligibility above 300 percent of the poverty level.
The bill also allows for immigrants, both legal and illegal, to access SCHIP funds, although illegal immigrants may only do so for 90 days.
The bill removes previous requirements, currently required under Medicaid, that mandate new enrollees provide photo identification and documentation proving citizenship, such as a green card or passport, when applying for SCHIP.
The new language strips this proposal and says that states can accept Social Security numbers as proof of citizenship, and that they must provide health coverage while those numbers are being verified. If a number cannot be verified, states must drop coverage after 90 days.
However, a Social Security number is the only proof of citizenship required under SCHIP and new enrollees are no longer required to offer proof of identification when enrolling. This provision would allow someone who has stolen a Social Security number to receive CHIP funds, so long as the theft is not discovered by the Social Security Administration the agency responsible for tracking and issuing Social Security numbers.
The bill would also cover some parents of poor children as well as some single adults.
Currently, some states are allowed waivers to cover parents of poor children and some single adults, provisions which were eliminated by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005.
The new SCHIP bill would allow state to continue using federal funds to cover parents of very poor children, but would phase out covering single adults.
http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=42026
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Kellehers may have to pay $3000 per month for medicine while applications process.