In 2007, former President George W. Bush implemented rules that made it difficult for any state in the U.S. to expand their Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
The policy stated that no child in a family with an income of above 250 percent of the federal poverty level could enroll in SCHIP unless their state met the following condition: 95 percent of all children eligible for Medicaid or SCHIP must be proven enrolled.
The condition, the Bush Administration argued, was to ensure SCHIP strictly provided health insurance for only poor children. They also repeatedly said any SCHIP expansion was a backdoor to socialized health care.
Bush’s rules also required that a child must go without health insurance for a year before they could be enrolled.
These rules will be reversed under President Barack Obama, reported The New York Times.
The rules were designed to block any expansion of the children’s health insurance program, which is a big part of the Congressional Democrats’ agenda.
State governments were in uproar over these policies, contending 95 percent coverage was near impossible. Eight states went as far as suing the White House over the rules.
“[The rules] prevented a lot of kids from receiving the health care they needed, ” said a federal employee at the Department of Health and Human Resources.