Health Care for Children: A ‘Revolutionary’ Idea to Some Senate Republicans

by Mike Hall, Aug 1, 2007

It doesn’t sound that radical or revolutionary. But making sure the nation’s children have a healthy start and their parents aren’t twisted into anxiety-driven knots about how to pay for their kids’ health care are two “revolutionary thoughts” to some Senate Republicans, says Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).

Yesterday, as the Senate began debate on renewing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), Kennedy expressed dismay at opposition to the Senate’s bill, which reauthorizes the 10-year-old program that some 6.6 million low-income children rely upon for health care coverage.

While the bill has bipartisan support, many Senate Republicans oppose it because it also provides an additional $35 billion over current costs to extend coverage to some 3.3 million more of the nation’s 9 million children who have no health insurance.  

President Bush says he will veto the bill because it exceeds his funding request and because the bill would hurt the private, for-profit health insurance industry, even though these children are currently uninsured and their parents cannot afford insurance.

Yesterday, Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) acknowledged Republican support for the bill, but said he hopes to keep enough Republicans in line to sustain a Bush veto. Overriding a veto takes a two-thirds majority. Click here to send a message to your senators urging them to support the SCHIP bill. Read about the bill’s broad support here.      

Kennedy was outraged that wealthy lawmakers who have no worries about their own children’s health coverage are trying to block the bill. As he said on the Senate floor yesterday:

Think about that number–9 million children in the wealthiest and most powerful nation on Earth. Nine million children whose only family doctor is the emergency room….

We know where the Bush administration stands. The president’s proposal for SCHIP doesn’t provide what is needed to cover children who are eligible but unenrolled. In fact, the president’s proposal is $8 billion less than what is needed simply to keep children now enrolled in SCHIP from losing their current coverage–$8 billion short. To make matters worse, the president has threatened to veto the Senate bill, which does the job that needs to be done if we are serious about guaranteeing decent health care to children of working families.

Those of us on this side of the aisle and a group on the other side–a small group on the other side–have stated the same concept, that every child in America should have a healthy start, No. 1; and No. 2, that every parent in America should be relieved of the anxiety of worrying about whether they have sufficient resources to be able to make sure their child is going to receive decent quality health care. Those are revolutionary thoughts, are they not? Those are surprising concepts, isn’t that right? Some of our friends on the other side of the aisle get all worked up about those two concepts.

Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) noted that expanding SCHIP has the support of much of the business community.

We know the business community is begging us to move forward and expand health insurance coverage in this country to help them find a way to move to universal coverage which won’t be at the expense of competitiveness. We know that working families, those in labor unions and those who are not, all understand the cost of health insurance and its value to every family….I hope that we can build on [SCHIP], cover more uninsured children.

Both the Senate and House are expected to vote on SCHIP bills before they adjourn for the summer. The House bill goes further than the Senate version by providing an addtional $50 billion over current costs. We will keep you posted on the action.

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