A new offer on insurance for kids

President Bush has made Congress a counteroffer on expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Bush's budget would increase spending on the program, which offers subsidized health insurance to children of the working poor, by nearly $20 billion over the next five years. The new offer would generally limit eligibility to children in families that earn no more than 2 1/2 times the poverty level, howeever. Previous bills surrounding SCHIP vetoed by Bush would have allowed states to set the ceiling as high as three times the poverty level.