Despite a new veto threat from the White House, members of the House voted 225-204 today for a bill that would increase funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program by a total of $50 billion, or $10 billion per year, over the next 5 years.
SCHIP, which is set to expire Sept. 30, now gets about $5 billion per year. The White House has proposed spending an additional $5 billion, or $1 billion per year, on SCHIP over the next 5 years.
Members of the Senate hope to complete work on their SCHIP reauthorization bill before they leave Friday for a month-long recess.
The SCHIP bill, H.R. 3162, the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act, also calls for increases in doctors' payments under Medicare and other expansions of the Medicare program.
H.R. 3162 would pay for the SCHIP funding increase by increasing the federal tobacco tax by 45 cents.
The bill also would cut payments to the private insurers that participate in the Medicare Advantage program, and it would impose new reporting mandates and other consumer protection rules on Medicare Advantage carriers.
Republicans criticized H.R. 3162 during floor debate.
