A bipartisan group of senators -- Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) -- have introduced legislation (S 2049) that would prevent the implementation of new rules announced by the Bush administration that are designed to limit SCHIP enrollment to the lowest-income children, CQ HealthBeat reports (Reichard, CQ HealthBeat, 9/13).

Under the standards, states must demonstrate that they have enrolled at least 95% of children in the state in families with incomes below 200% of the federal poverty level who are eligible for Medicaid or SCHIP before expanding eligibility to children in families with incomes greater than 250% of the poverty level. States seeking to expand SCHIP eligibility also must establish a minimum of a one-year period of uninsurance for individuals in families with incomes greater than 250% of the poverty level to prevent them from switching from a private insurance plan to a public program (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 9/11).

Snowe said, "Health coverage has grown so expensive that even above 250% of the federal poverty line, many families simply cannot afford it." Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) also "is looking at ways to stop" the new enrollment rules but has not specifically endorsed the bipartisan bill, according to an aide (CQ HealthBeat, 9/13).

Reports
In related news, Baucus and Senate Finance Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on Thursday in a letter to HHS asked the agency to provide information about contracts it has signed for research on SCHIP -- in particular, studies conducted by Mathematica Policy Research -- and to quickly release any findings, CQ Today reports. Baucus and Grassley wrote, "To the extent that HHS has outstanding research projects that provide additional insights into how the [SCHIP] program is working, we would hope the administration would be forthcoming with such information."

One report, titled "SCHIP at 10: A Synthesis of the Evidence on Substitution of SCHIP for Other Coverage," is expected to discuss "crowd-out," the phenomenon of public coverage substituting for private insurance. The crowd-out theory is one of President Bush's grounds for vetoing SCHIP legislation, indicating that the report "could have significant impact" on the SCHIP discussion, according to CQ Today.

CMS spokesperson Jeff Nelligan in an e-mail said that the agency is "aware of the senators' letter and [is] working on the expedited release of the report." Baucus and Grassley said they want copies of any draft or completed Mathematica reports…