Bush veto on childrens health insurance

$1 billion a week for Iraq more important than children's insurance to president

Washington, DC - A children's health insurance program will be vetoed by President Bush as too expensive.

Around $7 billion a year is too steep a price to pay says the president, in contrast, the Iraq war is costing over $380 billion a year.

The progam was to be expanded by $35 billion over five years. Bush and many Republicans contend the program's original intent would be changed under the current bill. The program gives coverage to parents who make too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to buy private insurance for their children.

Even though Democrats are expected to officially send the legislation to the White House Tuesday afternoon, Perino said Bush will not veto the bill on Tuesday.

"Not today," Perino said, adding that Wednesday is likely for the veto. The president will be traveling Wednesday to Lancaster, Pa. to discuss the federal budget and taxes.

The Senate voted 67-29 Thursday night to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program, a measure Bush has vowed before to veto, saying it's a step toward universal coverage.

The program would double -- from 4 million to 8 million -- the number of children covered.

Eighteen Republicans joined all of the Democrats in voting to expand the program from its current annual budget of $5 billion to $12 billion for the next five years.

Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah was among those Republicans who split from the president. "It's very difficult for me to be against a man I care so much for," he told his colleagues on the Senate floor before the vote. "It's unfortunate that the president has chosen to be on what, to me, is clearly the wrong side of this issue."

Though 67 votes in the 100-person chamber would suffice to overturn a veto, the House version, which was approved September 25, fell short of the two-thirds majority needed.

States suing

Five states said on Monday they will sue the federal government to block new rules governing a children's health insurance program that they fear will force them to drop some children.

New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois and Washington will file suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York later this week, a spokeswoman for New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer said.

The State Children's Health Insurance Program, which relies heavily on federal funding, initially focused on children from low-income families who do not qualify for Medicaid, but states increasingly have sought to cover those from more moderate income families who lack employer-paid plans and say they cannot afford private insurance.

Under the new rules, children who have no health benefits would have to wait a year before joining the state plans. States would have to cover 95 percent of poverty-level families before enrolling more middle-income children, a requirement some states say they cannot meet.