5th district candidates oppose insurance bill

An attempt to override President Bush’s veto of more health insurance for children is dividing the GOP nationally, but not the three Republicans in next year’s 5th Congressional District race.

First-term Rep. Doug Lamborn and challengers Jeff Crank and Bentley Rayburn said the proposed expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program would move the country closer to socialized medicine.

They said the program designed to help poor children who do not qualify for Medicaid would grow so much under a bill approved by Congress that middle-class families would qualify for it.

Through SCHIP, the federal government and the states subsidize the cost of health coverage for families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance. Congress approved a $35 billion spending increase over five years. Bush has recommended a $5 billion spending increase. A vote is scheduled today in the U.S. House, and critics of the president are expected to fall short of the two-thirds support they need to override the veto.

Lamborn issued a statement Oct. 3 warning that passage of the bill would take money from the Medicare Advantage program. He praised Bush for the veto, and spokeswoman Kristen Hainen said Lamborn has not moved from that position.

Crank said he wants more children insured, but that the qualifications for SCHIP are so broad in the bill that millions of children would go from being privately insured to being covered by the government.

Rayburn said the bill does not solve the problem of health care for poorer children but simply pushes the government into an area that private business should handle.

Only Crank said he favors an alternate plan — an effort by Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., to offer tax credits for buying insurance to families that make 200 percent to 300 percent of the federal poverty level.

No Democrats are in the 5th District race so far, but state Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, said that if no one offers alternatives to Lamborn’s opinions, he may have to consider requests he’s received to enter the contest.

Morse sent letters to Crank and Rayburn asking them to push for an override, then expressed frustration at what he saw as the GOP candidates “repeating the same tired, lying rhetoric of the president.”

CONTACT THE WRITER: (303)837-0613 or ed.sealover@gazette.com