Harkin: Children's health program vulnerable
2007-08-08
Source: Sioux City Journal
U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin warned Monday that some Iowa children covered by a state health insurance program could lose coverage if President Bush vetoes a congressional funding increase.
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rss feedHarkin, D-Iowa, visited a Des Moines hospital to make a pitch for a bipartisan bill raising the federal cigarette tax from 39 cents to $1 per pack and pumping $35.4 billion into children's health coverage nationwide over five years. A share of that money would pay for Hawk-I children's health coverage in Iowa.
The bill has the support of 68 senators, including U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, but President Bush has threatened to veto the measure. He's proposing a $5 billion funding increase.
"We want to send a message to the president, don't veto this bill," Harkin said. "We'd actually have to take some kids off of the Hawk-I program if the president's budget went through."
Hawk-I, which provides government dollars to help families pay for private insurance, currently covers 22,000 children in the state. The program has also steered tens of thousands of Iowa's poorest children toward Medicaid health coverage.
State officials are embarking on an outreach effort with hopes of covering roughly 10,000 more children with Hawk-I in each of the next four years. But they say that can't happen unless the president accepts a larger funding hike.
