Following passage in the Senate on December 18 and the House the following day, Congress sent President Bush a Medicare bill (S 2499) that would delay for six months a Medicare physician fee cut set to take effect on January 1, 2008 and also extend the current authorization for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) through March 2009.  Due to the stalemate in negotiations between Congress and the White House on the SCHIP reauthorization bill, including the second veto by the President on December 12, the adopted bill includes minimal adjustments to the program.  SCHIP will operate in its current form until March 31, 2009 and an additional $800 million will be added to the current $5 billion funding level for states facing funding shortfalls.  This bill is expected to be signed by the President in the coming days.  The vetoed SCHIP reauthorization bill is still in play, and the House is expected to attempt to override the veto on January 23.

Also included in the Medicare bill is a six-month extension of the Title V abstinence-only-until-marriage program through June 30, 2008.  Transitional Medical Assistance (TMA), a program that helps low-income individuals move from welfare to work while maintaining health insurance was also extended through June 2008 – the two programs have been linked, politically.  Title V provides $50 million in federal funding to abstinence-only programs, supplemented with a 75 percent required state match.  A congressionally mandated evaluation of the Title V program released earlier this year found that abstinence-only programs do not work.  Fifteen states currently reject federal funding for the Title V program, including New Mexico which announced its pull out from the program on December 19.