Some House Democrats are unhappy with concessions their leaders are proposing to make in negotiations with the Senate to renew children’s health insurance, but they are not expected to oppose a final bill.

Negotiations are continuing as House Democrats, having conceded on spending and Medicare issues, press Senate leaders to accept policy that some Senate Republicans don’t like.

Child advocates, lobbyists and Senate aides said last week that House and Senate Democratic leaders have tentatively agreed to a compromise renewal of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) that would expand spending by about $35 billion over the next five years, to $60 billion — matching spending in the Senate version (HR 976).

A tobacco tax increase would pay for the expansion, including a 61-cent increase in the cigarette tax, to $1 per pack — another element of the Senate bill. And the compromise bill would not include a House-passed cut to Medicare Advantage, a program in which insurers provide health benefits to seniors in place of the government, or other Medicare provisions from the House version (HR 3162).

Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., who confirmed the outline of the agreement Monday, is one of the House Democrats upset by those concessions. “I’m very unhappy. It’s not even a compromise. It’s their way or the highway,” he said, referring to the Senate.

Rangel described the proposed compromise as largely the work of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. But he said that there is not yet a deal in place, as many details remain to be negotiated. For example, House Democrats do not want a final measure to limit eligibility for SCHIP or ban coverage of legal immigrants, as the Senate bill would do.

House Democrats will meet Tuesday and discuss the negotiations, though Rangel said he did not think the caucus would be asked to approve the compromise. “There’s nothing for [Pelosi] to ask the caucus to vote for,” he said.

Although displeased, Rangel said he would likely approve any final compromise bill. “It would be very difficult rejecting a bill, even though it’s not everything I want to see,” he said.

House Democratic leaders expect most of their caucus will feel similarly.

“Does it insure 10 million kids? If it does, I’m for it,” said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill. A $35 billion expansion would accomplish that goal, he said, and other details are unimportant by comparison.

Members of the Senate Finance Committee may meet Tuesday in private to discuss the agreement. A key question is whether the committee’s Republicans, who negotiated hard to limit the Senate bill’s spending and scope, will support the compromise.

“There are still some issues to be worked out,” one Senate GOP aide said, noting as an example House Democrats’ push to allow coverage of legal immigrants.

SCHIP covers about 6 million children who are low income but not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid, at a cost of about $5 billion this year. Without congressional action by Sept. 30, the 10-year-old program (PL 105-33) will not have new funding in fiscal 2008.

Democrats have made the program’s renewal and expansion a priority but have faced opposition from President Bush and many Republicans, who have fought a large expansion of the program.

Senate Republicans made it clear they would block a final bill unless it adhered to Senate-passed spending limits and did not include the House provisions on Medicare, a position that has limited House Democrats’ negotiating room.