COVERAGE: House Gives Final Approval to SCHIP Reauthorization

By a margin of 290–135, the House gave final approval today to legislation reauthorizing the State Children's Health Insurance Program through Fiscal Year 2013. The bill now heads to the White House, where President Obama has scheduled a signing ceremony for 4:30 pm in the East room of the White House.

The final version of the H.R. 2—passed in the Senate last week by a margin of 66–32, with nine Republican Senators voting in favor of the bill—provides an additional $32.8 billion in funding, extending coverage to four million more uninsured children and bringing total enrollment in the program to 11 million. The spending is funded by a 62-cent increase on the tobacco tax.