During the week of July 30, the House and Senate passed different versions of a reauthorization and expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) that will expand health care coverage to millions of uninsured children across the country. The Senate version would extend coverage to about four million additional children, while the House version would add five million children and root out excess costs in the Medicare Advantage program, which privatizes health insurance but at a higher cost than traditional Medicare coverage. President Bush has threatened to veto both bills. The Senate approved its version (H.R. 976) on Aug. 2 68-31, which is enough votes to override a potential presidential veto should one occur. Senate Republicans have warned that even slight changes in the bill could result in them changing their votes, which would make it nearly impossible to override a veto. The House bill's (H.R. 3162) vote was closer than the Senate's at 225-204. Under normal circumstances, this vote margin would not be enough to override a veto. The closeness of the House vote is owed to the bill's many contested provisions, mostly regarding total SCHIP funding and the cuts in the Medicare Advantage program. The House bill includes $15 billion more in SCHIP funding over five years than the Senate's $35 billion version, which will help to cover an additional one million children. The Congressional Budget Office found that between five and six million uninsured children are eligible for SCHIP but have not been enrolled. A Bush administration-touted study showed that only one million eligible children were uninsured, but its study only included children who lacked insurance for a full year or more, instead of shorter periods within the year. Both bills accomplish an expansion of the SCHIP program in a responsible, deficit neutral manner. Funding for the Senate bill came entirely from a 61-cent increase in the federal tobacco tax. The House bill would raise the tobacco tax by 45 cents, while eliminating overpayments in the Medicare Advantage program and its stabilization fund (for more on Medicare Advantage, see this background brief). The Bush administration has issued a veto threat for both bills, on grounds of its opposition to "government-run" health care, the percentage of already insured children who would sign up for SCHIP under an expansion and the program's inclusion of a small percentage of adults. However, as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has documented, this SCHIP legislation should minimize these concerns. SCHIP programs are managed by the states, which work with private insurers to provide coverage, and health economists have found that SCHIP lets in a low percentage of insured children who opt out of private plans and sign up for SCHIP, compared to other federal insurance programs. Studies have also shown that when parents are enrolled in SCHIP, their children get coverage at a much higher rate. Even so, both the House and Senate versions would limit the extent to which states will be allowed to sign up parents and childless adults. While the passage of these two bills is a significant accomplishment, the House and Senate will need to conference their two versions to arrive at a final proposal to reauthorize and expand the SCHIP program once they return to Washington in September. With time running out (the program is set to expire on Sept. 30) and the president threatening to veto either version of the reauthorization, there are still considerable obstacles to be overcome before work on the legislation is finished.