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Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said Democrats were looking to increase spending on the State Children's Health Insurance Program by $35 billion over five years
-- $15 billion less than they had originally discussed.
Emerging from a meeting with other members of the Senate Finance Committee, Hatch said Democrats would pay for the expansion through an increase in the federal excise tax on tobacco, which now stands at 39 cents a pack.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the committee's chairman, said lawmakers were working out final details of a package that he planned to unveil later this week. He and other lawmakers declined to discuss the details.
The Bush administration has proposed adding $5 billion to the program over the next five years
-- on top of the $25 billion available under current spending levels.
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The 10-year-old program subsidizes the cost of insuring those children living in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance.
More than 6 million people, including about 600,000 adults, get health insurance coverage each year through SCHIP. The federal government pays for about 70 percent of the program's costs, while states pay the rest.
The $35 billion increase cited by Hatch may not make Democrats or Republicans happy.
Hatch called the amount still too high, while Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., left the meeting saying there were things she would do differently, but in the end, the bill would fulfill the goal of expanding health insurance coverage to more children.
[Associated Press;
by Kevin Freking]
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