The administration has suggested that offering parents tax deductions to offset the costs of health insurance -- rather than expanding SCHIP -- would be an effective way to extend coverage to more children. This analysis finds that the costs for families earning between 150 and 300 percent of the federal poverty level (approximately $32,000-65,000 for a family of four in 2009) would be much higher under the tax-deduction approach than under SCHIP. Thus, the potential to decrease the number of uninsured children would be substantially greater under an SCHIP expansion than under the proposed tax deduction. Click to continue at Urban.org
