by James Parks, Sep 6, 2007

Three generations of activists tried to teach President George W. Bush a new song about health care today. Flanked by congressional leaders, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and members of the Alliance for Retired Americans, a group of children kicked off a Capitol Hill press conference today singing:

I don’t want your millions mister.

I don’t want your car and wealth.

All I want is SCHIP, mister,
So kids like me can have good health.

The children, carrying signs that read “Kids Need Health Care” and “Don’t Veto My Health Care,” joined more than 100 parents and grandparents, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other House Democratic leaders to make it clear they want President Bush to sign legislation expanding the States Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

Congress recently voted to continue coverage for 6 million children and provide health insurance for up to 5 million more. President Bush has threatened to veto any expansion of health care coverage for children under this successful insurance program, which has cut the number of uninsured low-income children by nearly one-third in a decade.

Bush, who promised at the Republican National Convention in 2004 to expand health care for children, now says expanding SCHIP is a step toward socialism. The Congressional Budget Office says Bush’s SCHIP reauthorization proposal would actually drop children from the health coverage rolls. The program is set to expire Sept. 30.

Steve Skvara, a United Steelworkers (USW) member and active member of the Alliance for Retired Americans, called on Bush to re-examine his priorities:

Our most precious national resource is our children. For the wealthiest country in the world to think of cutting back health care for children is a sin. Before you pick up that pen to veto, Mr. President, pick up your Bible and read Matthew, where Jesus says: “When you do this for the least of them, you do it for me.”

Thirteen-year-old Ruby Simon spoke for her generation when she told the crowd she doesn’t have to worry about health care because her mother is in a union, but not all children have that security:

This president once promised not to leave any child behind. I ask President Bush to keep his promise.

Pelosi (D-Calif.), herself a grandmother, pledged that she and the House Democrats would continue to fight for health care for America’s children. She praised the union movement and the retirees for their efforts, saying:

All our efforts (to expand health care) would not have had any effect had it not been for your organization around this issue.

The push for expanded health care for children is part of the AFL-CIO’s drive for overall reform of America’s broken health care system. Sweeney told the press conference:

Union members will make the 2008 elections a mandate on health care. We will hold candidates for office at every level accountable to progressive reform and elect a president and Congress pledged to get the job done. The president should look at his priorities. In America, no one should go without health care.

Take action now. Click here to sign a petition calling on your representative to support expansion of SCHIP.

The intergenerational event preceded a day of lobbying on Capitol Hill by some 600 members of the Alliance for Retired Americans, who will press their representatives and senators to support quality health care for all ages. Alliance President George Kourpias said seniors and children are linked by the common threat to their health care and that seniors would hold Congress and the president accountable for providing health care for all.

Seniors particularly are concerned over the increasing privatization of key Medicare programs—fueled by $50 billion over five years in annual overpayments to insurance companies through falsely named Medicare Advantage plans and $150 billion over 10 years. The Alliance believes the overpayments siphon away money from the Medicare Trust Fund.

In July, on the 42nd anniversary of Medicare, Alliance Executive Director Edward Coyle said:

Seniors’ health care is being sacrificed for the profits of large corporations. Seniors should be deeply concerned about recent high-profile media accounts of publicly subsidized Medicare Advantage companies using bait and switch marketing tactics to confuse and mislead seniors and deny them medical care. These private programs cherry-pick those they want to serve, leaving behind those most in need.

Other members of Congress who spoke or attended the press conference today included House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.), Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Pete Stark (D-Calif.), Reps. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Betty Sutton (D-Ohio) and Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas).

We also reported that Dennis G. Smith, President Bush’s director of the federal Center for Medicaid and State Operations, wrote letters last month to state officials announcing new rules designed to prevent states from expanding SCHIP to cover more of the nation’s nearly 9 million uninsured children.

On Tuesday, the nation’s Medicaid directors told Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt the new SCHIP standards will limit the number of children covered. In a letter to Leavitt, the National Association of State Medicaid Directors (NASMD) said the new standards reduce flexibility, making it difficult to expand coverage.

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