From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

Health insurance on Capitol Hill and the presidential campaign trail.

Hello again, I'm a Ronalny, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International,

a daily look at the issues, Americans care about most.

Hillary Clinton and the rest of the candidates are debating health care reform.

Meantime, President Bush and the Congress are wrangling over the state children's health insurance program, or S-CHIP.

It's a 10-year-old program to cover poor children, and both parties call it successful.

But it must be renewed by the end of

this month. On to the point, Democrats and some Republicans want to expand it by increasing the

cigarette tax, President Bush has promised a veto. We'll hear what's at stake now, and for the debate

on comprehensive reform. On reporter's notebook later on, the U.S. is building a dam in Afghanistan. What about the Taliban?

First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica and from the Public Radio International Program Fund, whose contributors include the Ford Foundation and the John D. and Catherine

T. MacArthur Foundation. Hello again. Marloni, back with To the Point. As the presidential

candidates debate the future of health care reform, President Bush and the Congress are at odds

over a current program that's about to expire. On To the Point, should subsidized health insurance

for poor children be expanded?

How will the issue impact the ongoing campaign?

On reporter's notebook, the U.S. Agency for International Development versus the Taliban in the toughest place in Afghanistan.

First, this news update.

After a shootout involving Blackwater USA, the government of Iraq wants to crack down on private security contractors.

Megan Greenwell is in Baghdad for the Washington Post.

...