Thursday, November 8, 2007

The SCHIP Went Down in Oregon

Voters reject plan by 3-2 vote

Categories: Oregon, SCHIP

Today's OpinionJournal.com offers some lessons from the recently defeated SCHIP expansion in blue-state Oregon.

What I didn't know is that although not all families would be subsidized (the subsidies would "only" be given to those with incomes up to 3 times the poverty level), anyone could sign up. Talk about a death spiral.

There are many possible reasons for voters to have rejected the plan. Like the federal version, the Oregon expansion would rely heavily on cigarette taxes. Perhaps voters didn't want to rely on cigarette taxes, which are not only regressive, but causing the number of smokers to decline. Perhaps--one could hope--that a number of people understood the folly of expanding a government program when there are so many other things that could be done.

Regardless, it give me hope that voters aren't always fooled.