A proposal to expand health insurance coverage to 45,000 children from low-income families didn’t make it into the state budget that legislators OK’d last week, prompting some lawmakers to start playing the blame game.

The $5.8 billion budget compromise approved by the House and Senate on Wednesday included millions of dollars for pet projects statewide but not the $8.5 million needed to expand a popular children’s health care program.

That expansion was on a Senate “wish list” under consideration by the conference committee that pieced together the budget compromise, but it didn’t make the cut.

“There just wasn’t support for it in the committee,” said committee member and state Rep. Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston. “If you want to know why, you’ll have to ask the Senate.”

Sen. John Land, D-Clarendon, said House committee members blocked the insurance program.

“It’s easy to blame others, but we would not have gotten the votes from two members from the House,” said Land, who, like Harrell, said he supported the expansion.

The conference committee had three House and three Senate members.

The Child Health Insurance Program now covers 74,000 children statewide from families who live at 150 percent of the federal poverty level. That is an income of $28,275 for a family of four.

The proposal would have expanded the program to include those living at 185 percent of poverty, or $34,873 a year for a family of four.

North Carolina and Georgia already pay to provide insurance to children living at 200 percent of the poverty level. If South Carolina were to boost coverage to that level, about 200,000 more of the state’s children would have insurance.

Coverage under the program includes doctor visits, prescription drugs and hospitalization.

The program matches state money with federal dollars. Every 20 cents spent by the state gets an 80-cent match from the federal government.

“This means that we’re missing out on millions of federal dollars and thousands of children of the working poor are going uninsured,” said Rep. James Smith, D-Richland, who supported including the program in the budget.

The budget, highly praised by Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike, does put $67.5 million more into Medicaid.

Gov. Mark Sanford has until midnight Tuesday to veto items in the budget before they become law. The budget is for the state’s fiscal year that starts July 1.

Many lawmakers were reluctant to speculate why CHIP didn’t make it into the budget deal. But some feared the estimated $8.5 million a year price tag would not be enough to cover the demand.

Others say the proposal lost out because the Senate included it on a list of programs to be paid for with one-time dollars.

Sue Berkowitz, director of the S.C. Appleseed Legal Justice Center, said that doesn’t wash with families struggling to pay their children’s medical bills.

“I understand good budgeting practices, but it would be better to provide health care for 45,000 children for a year than not at all,” she said.

Sen. Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, said legislators hope to find money for the program next year.

“There’s 46 senators and 124 House members. That makes for 170 different opinions on how money should be spent.”

Reach Stensland at (803) 771-8358 or jstensland@thestate.com.