By Kelley Weiss
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kcur/local-kcur-640537.mp3
Kansas City, MO – Congress will try to override President Bush's veto of the ten-year-old State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP. KCUR's Kelley Weiss reports.
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Earlier this month President Bush vetoed a bill to reauthorize and expand SCHIP by $35 billion. The House now needs a two-thirds majority vote to cancel the President's veto.
If the veto stands, states could no longer apply for federal waivers allowing families into the program with incomes higher than around $27,000 per year. Pediatrician and vice president of Missouri's American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. Thomas Tryon, says Missouri has one of those income waivers - right now a family of four making $60,000 a year is covered.
Dr. Thomas Tryon: "In Missouri it puts the health insurance benefits of around 60,000 children at risk."
Tryon says if the veto is not overturned these Missouri children could lose their health coverage. The President has offered a $5 billion expansion to the program - supporters of his veto say Mr. Bush is limiting government run health care and costs.
Funding for health care coverage on KCUR has been provided by the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City.
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