When President Bush declares his "support" for the "initial intent" of SCHIP, one wonders what exactly he imagines that to be. Originally, he proposed to fund the program at such low levels that it would actually have resulted in more uninsured children. Now that Congress has shown its determination to flout that request--both houses have voted to fund the program much more generously--he seems intent on starving the program by using his executive authority to limit the states' ability to expand it. When SCHIP was first created, states typically restricted eligibility to families making less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level. Since then, however, several states have increased that cap to 300 percent (and even 350 percent in the case of New Jersey). Now, according to The New York Times, Bush has announced new standards intended to stymie state efforts to expand eligibility. These standards, which HHS would enforce, include a provision requiring states to demonstrate that they have insured at least 95 percent of those children living below 200 percent of the poverty level before they can receive federal funding to insure children living above 250 percent--a benchmark the states say will be impossible to hurdle. But there are some very good reasons states have expanded eligibility over the years--among them, the fact that, relative to incomes, health insurance has simply become a lot more expensive. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, since 1996--the year before SCHIP's creation--the average cost of a premium for a family plan has grown five times as fast as the federal poverty level. As a result, today you have many more kids in families that find health insurance impossibly expensive, and many families above 200 percent of the poverty level are paying a higher percentage of their income towards health care than were those below 200 percent when the program was created in 1997. Helping those kids get insurance is precisely why SCHIP was created. Or, to put it more simply, it's the program's initial intent--no matter what Bush says. --Ben Crair