SCHIP Helps NJ Family Afford Private School, Basic Cable
Family Making $56,000 Struggles With `Out of Sight' Health Cost
By Aliza Marcus
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Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Lori and Steven Siravo earn $56,000 a year and say they can't afford health insurance.
They consider themselves lucky to live in New Jersey, where the family's income isn't too high to qualify their 16-year-old daughter, Carlie, for U.S. government-subsidized coverage under the State Children's Health Insurance Program.
``It's one of the greatest things,'' said Lori, 48, a hairdresser who pays $74.50 a month for her daughter's benefits, less than a third of what she'd have to spend for private insurance. She and her husband, who works for a small construction company, don't have insurance. ``At least I can sleep a little better at night knowing Carlie has it.''
President George W. Bush says families making that much can afford private coverage and that the 10-year-old program should return to its purpose of ``helping poor children.'' His effort to stop middle-class families from obtaining benefits in states such as New Jersey is at the heart of a conflict with Congress over renewal of the health plan set to expire Sept. 30.
Bush has vowed to veto legislation the Democratic- controlled House is expected to vote on today that would more than double funding from $5 billion a year, cover about 3.4 million more children, and retain flexibility for states to enroll whoever they want. The Senate will take up the measure later this week.
The president wants to keep spending almost unchanged and make sure the money is directed at kids in households earning less than $34,340 a year for a family of three, twice the federal poverty level.
Too Rich for Medicaid
Schip, as it's known, was created for families who earned too much for Medicaid, the U.S. insurance program for the poor, and too little to afford a private plan.
Over the years, some states won approval from the Bush administration to enroll kids in families with higher incomes. Governors argued that higher living costs, coupled with insurance premiums rising at double or triple the rate of wages, put coverage beyond the reach of even middle-income families.
In New Jersey, the most generous of 19 states that expanded eligibility, a family of four earning $72,275 qualifies. This month, the administration denied New York's request to cover families making up to $82,600.
New Jersey's high wages push up the price of everything, said state Senator Joseph Vitale, chairman of the health committee. The median income in New Jersey is $64,470, second only to Maryland's $65,144, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures for 2006.
`It's a Struggle'
``It costs more in New Jersey, even if you're a middle- class family,'' Vitale, a Democrat, said in a telephone interview. ``It's a struggle between property taxes and car insurance and putting food on the table, and then when it comes to health insurance, our costs are out of sight.''
Lori Siravo has lived all her life in and around Keyport, a central New Jersey town of about 7,500 people. She and her husband own a three-bedroom house six blocks from Raritan Bay.
Steven, 49, drives a Chevrolet Caprice Classic that's almost 20 years old, and she drives a 5-year-old Chevy Monte Carlo. The above-ground pool out back is 17 years old, bought when ``we had money'' before Carlie was born, Lori said.
The one luxury is a full-size pinball machine Steven bought for his wife on her 40th birthday.
The family's monthly bills consume most of their take-home income. Pulling out her checkbook, Lori said there's the mortgage ($1,500), utilities ($743), phones and Internet service ($200), car insurance and gasoline ($205), property taxes ($230), basic cable television ($48), food ($600) and credit- card payments ($325) on an outstanding $11,000 balance. That's $46,212 a year, not including clothes, school books and extra- curricular activities for Carlie.
Private School
There's also $352 a month on a home-equity loan the Siravos took out to send Carlie to a private Catholic high school. Tuition is $9,000 a year.
``I'll do anything for her to be happy and get a good education so she doesn't struggle,'' Siravo said. Carlie is thinking of a career as a physical therapist.
If Schip weren't available, Carlie's parents could cover only the teenager through a $230-a-month policy with Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, according to the Web site ehealthinsurance.com.
Lori ran up $860 in bills this year for blood tests and doctors' visits after she came down with a flu that wouldn't go away. During four months when the family's income climbed high enough that Carlie was bounced from Schip, her newly pierced ear became infected. Lori waited weeks, hoping the swelling would go down. Treatment eventually cost $530.
Under Bush's proposal, families like the Siravos whose kids are already covered by the program would probably continue to receive benefits as long as their income doesn't exceed current limits.
``I just want to live a normal life,'' Siravo said. ``Life is stressful enough without worrying about your health.''
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