Steamroller joins forces with Terminator
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- August
- 29
Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who has referred to himself as a steamroller, is teaming up with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of “The Terminator” fame to demand that President George Bush reverse a decision that will limit states’ abilities to provide uninsured children with health care.
New rules for the federal government’s administration of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, announced Aug. 17, will block states from signing up as many low-income children for insurance. Until states enroll 95 percent of those eligible in households with incomes under 200 percent of the poverty line ($41,300 for a family of four), they will not be able to serve children in families making above 250 percent above the poverty line ($51,265 for a family of four). In New York, 88 percent of households below 200 percent of poverty level are registered.
States like New York and California, where the cost of living is high, should have the flexibility to cover more children, Spitzer, a Democrat, and Schwarzenegger, a Republican, said in a letter to the president. They said other rules changes are problematic too—children eligible for the health program must go without coverage for a year after enrolling and states expanding the program must have a less than 2 percent decline in employer-sponsored insurance.
The state Legislature approved Spitzer’s proposal this year to expand eligibility to 400 percent of the poverty level to achieve universal health coverage for New York’s children.
California and New York cover more than 1.4 million children and pregnant women through the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, nearly 25 percent of the total enrolled nationwide.
“These federal rules represent the wrong prescription for our children and will deny thousands of children access to the health insurance they need and deserve,” Spitzer said in a statement.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 at 3:44 pm by Cara Matthews.
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Jay Gallagher has covered Albany for Gannett News Service since 1984 and has been Albany Bureau chief since 1989. He`s a native of the Boston area and likes to point out that in this millennium, the score is Red Sox 1 championship, the Yankees 0. 
Cara Matthews has been a statehouse correspondent in the Albany Bureau since August 2005. Prior to that, she covered Putnam County government and politics at The Journal News for nearly five years. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them. 
