While the Senate and House are both deliberating renewal of the SCHIP program, they have each offered bills with significant differences. Here's a brief summary to keep it all straight. House Senate 2008-12 2008-17 2008-12 2008-17 Covered children who would otherwise be uninsured 5 million 4 million Cost (billions of dollars) 47.8 159.9 35.2 71.0 Revenue Increase (billions of dollars) 27.0 53.8 36.1 72.8 Tax increase per pack of cigarettes 45¢ 61¢ Families USA has a more detailed side-by-side indicating differences other than cost and revenue scoring. Note that the Senate bill appears to be fully offset while the House bill comes up short. The apparent shortfall is made up in a section of the House bill that would make significant changes to Medicare. Among other provisions, the House bill would increase by $31 billion Medicare benefits and physicians' payments. The increased spending would be offset by a $50 billion reduction in the Medicare Advantage program. When all the Medicare provisions are tallied up, the total cost of the House bill is $25 billion, which is more than offset by the $27 billion in tobacco tax revenue. The Senate bill, however, would not make changes to Medicare. Given the substantial differences between the two chambers' bills, the conference committee will no doubt be rather spirited.

• JCT scoring of Senate SCHIP revenue vehicles
• CBO cost and revenue estimates of Senate SCHIP provisons
• JCT scoring of House SCHIP revenue vehicles
• CBO cost and revenue estimates of House SCHIP provisons