A Pitch for 'sChip'

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ALISON STEWART, host:

It's time once again to break out the BPP's Make Me Care stopwatch. This is the segment where we take a story in the news that you know you're supposed to care about, but admit it, you've got some other things to do. When I say SCHIP, you say, well…

LUKE BURBANK, host:

What?

STEWART: …what's the big news? You know, it was really clear the president was going to veto funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP. He kept saying it again and again. Mr. Bush said it was too costly and over expanded the program to help pay for a poor kid's health care. It was only Mr. Bush' fourth veto. Okay, so that's news. Yeah, I get that. But otherwise, it was really no surprise. The Democrats pushed it through, knowing the president was going to veto it. So at this point, big whoop.

Stepping up to the Make Me Care plate is NPR's health policy correspondent, Julie Rovner. Hi, Julie.

JULIE ROVNER: Good morning.

STEWART: Good morning. But before we get to the Make Me Care of it all, just for a little context, how does SCHIP work, and why was it even up for the debate?

ROVNER: Well, SCHIP is a program that serves sort of lower-income kids, but not the poorest kids. The poorest kids, of course, get Medicaid. And kids who in families that they are wealthy enough to afford private insurance get private insurance. So these were sort of the kids in the middle, the kids of the working poor. It's a 10-year-old program, and it expired actually, technically, on October 1st, although Congress passed a continuing resolution to keep the government running until November 15th. And they kept SCHIP running along with that, so we've got some time to play around with this, if you will, and have this big political fight. And that's where we are right now.

STEWART: Okay, Ms. Julie Rovner. We're going to put 60 seconds on the BPP clock. In 60 seconds or less, we want you to make us care about the State Children's Health Insurance Plan. You're going to hear a little ticking clock when you've got 10 seconds left. So, Julie, make us care.

ROVNER: Well, I can do it in five words. Your money and your health. This debate is about way more than this one program.

BURBANK: That's it. You're done.

ROVNER: This is really the first round of the next big debate about health care in this country, how it's organized, who pays and how much. So whether you have health insurance now or you're one of the 47 million Americans who are uninsured, you better pay attention to this debate because it's going to affect you and your pocketbook in a big way in the next couple of years.

Because what we're really seeing in the SCHIP debate are the two main poles of the health insurance fight, whether the government should provide more health insurance directly - which is pretty much what the Democrats are saying - or whether individuals should take more financial responsibility and depend on the market to hold down costs, which is the Republican's position and pretty much why the president vetoed this bill.

I think we're already seeing the debate pick up in the presidential campaign. And I think no matter which party wins, we're expecting a major debate on health care, starting with the next administration. So this is really as good a time as any to get clued in onto what the candidates are talking about and what's going on with this SCHIP debate.

STEWART: Nicely done, Julie.

BURBANK: That was amazing.

STEWART: You're getting applause coming out of the control room. So if this really is a micro version of this macro problem, let me ask you this. The Democrats don't have any votes in the House to override the president's veto on this particular issue, so will there be a compromise? And do you anticipate a compromise on the macro issue from whether it should be individual health care or whether it should be more sponsored health care form the government?

ROVNER: Well, I don't know whether there's going to be a compromise on the macro issue any time soon. On this micro SCHIP issue, the Democrats have put the vote on the override off for two weeks. It's not going to be until October 18th because they're launching, or they and a number of groups are launching a three to five million dollar advertising campaign. They really only need about 15 votes to turn in order to get the override that they need. So they're going to work pretty hard at it.

I don't know whether they're going to get it or not. If they don't, I don't know whether they're in the mood to compromise. They're tempted to do what they're doing on a rock. They want to bring this bill back every three months and make Republicans vote again and again and again.

STEWART: So let the drama begin is what you're saying.

(Soundbite of laughter)

ROVNER: Yeah. Well, all the polls we've seen say that a majority of voters -including Republicans and independent voters - like this bill, want to see the program expanded. So I think the Democrats see that they've got really the public on their side.

STEWART: Yeah.

ROVNER: And I don't think they're in any mood to compromise.

STEWART: Julie Rovner, Rovner. I'm sorry. I did it again. NPR's health policy correspondent. Thanks, Julie.

ROVNER: You're welcome.

BURBANK: This is the BRYANT PARK PROJECT from NPR News.

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