Millions of children in the United States are uninsured, and when medical problems arise they are not always able to get the medical care that they need. Efforts to increase access for all Americans to health care and health insurance by the Clinton Administration in 1994 were not successful, but the momentum for change resulted in a new program in 1997, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which provides health care to children whose families would otherwise not be eligible for Medicaid, the health program for low-income families.

SCHIP has been very popular across the country, and is seen as a great success. The money is given to the States, which have flexibility in deciding which children are eligible. SCHIP has received very strong bipartisan support. In 2007, a large majority of Senators and Members of the House of Representatives voted to expand the program, in ways that would increase coverage from 6 million to 10 million children. President Bush vetoed those bills. Congress fell short of overriding the vetoes by approximately one dozen votes.

The president said he vetoed the bills because it would have allowed states to use the program to provide health care for uninsured lower-middle class children, not only the poorest children. In addition, President Bush opposed the bill because it would use cigarette taxes to help pay for the expansion of the program.

How did the three Senators now running for president vote on the expansion of SCHIP? Unlike many of the issues that the presidential candidates debate, this is one where three of the four final candidates had the chance to vote, rather than just talk.

As can be seen in a speech posted on John McCain’s Senate website, on August 2, 2007, McCain explained to his Senate colleagues that he did not support the expansion of the program.

On September 27, when two-thirds of the Senate voted for the bill that was later vetoed by President Bush, Hillary Clinton was the only one of the final four presidential candidates to vote in support of the bill. Neither Barack Obama nor John McCain voted, two of only four senators that did not vote on the bill that day. Barack Obama has supported the expansion and John McCain has opposed it, so we assume they were not in Washington for the vote because of campaign activities.

Mike Huckabee is not a Member of Congress and thus did not have the opportunity to vote on the bill. However, in an October 9, 2007 presidential debate he was asked if he would have vetoed the bill, as President Bush had done. He did not answer either yes or no. However, at an AARP forum on October 26, 2007, Huckabee said the program expansion is “problematic from both a budgetary standpoint and also philosophical for many people."