Have you lost track of the SCHIP battle? The 11/27/07 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine had a nice summary of the situation. Written by J.K. Inglehart, a widely respected health policy analyst,its title is The Fate of SCHIP--Surrogate Marker for Health Care Ideology? An unpopular president vetoes a bill which enjoys wide (but not wide enough) bipartisan support. His reason? It is too expensive and will lead to socialized medicine. Its cost? $75 billion over 5 years (Iraq war spending is now $1 trillion) The house vote to override was 273-156, not the two-thirds necessary to succeed. This legislation was favored not only by a large (but not large enough) majority of legislators, but also a large majority of the public, major private stakeholders, and 43 state governors. To refresh your memory, SCHIP was signed into law by Clinton and was the product of bipartisan compromise enacted by a Republican Congress. It is widely judged to be very successful.

The reauthorization of SCHIP is not likely to return anytime soon. Meanwhile, the program will continue at current funding levels despite the fact that the number of uninsured children increased by 710,000 in 2006. Mr. Inglehart closes his piece with these words:" However, the SCHIP saga ends, it will not lay to rest the larger issue of what level of public support uninsured people deserve as our employer-based insurance continues to erode." Since health care is the No. 1 domestic issue, the public-private ideological struggle will continue throughout 2008.

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