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House Passes Children’s Health Bill, 265-159 |
Republican House members had a choice Tuesday evening—help children secure health care or march in lockstep under President Bush’s veto banner. Forty-five GOP members joined 220 Democrats and voted, 265-159, to renew the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
The bill reauthorizes SCHIP for the next five years and provides an additional $35 billion to help children secure health care.
The House margin was about 25 votes short of what is needed to override Bush’s promised veto. But the 151 Republicans who voted against giving kids health care may feel the pressure from back home by the time the override vote comes.
According to the Hill.com, a poll by a Republican polling firm found that 62 percent of Republicans favor the SCHIP bill. Overall, Americans support the bill by 86 percent to 11 percent.
The reauthorization bill would continue to provide health coverage for the 6.6 million children currently enrolled and extend coverage to an additional 4 million of the nation’s 9 million uninsured kids. Bush, who has ratcheted up his opposition to the children’s health care bill almost daily, says he will veto the bill—which is expected to pass the Senate Thursday—because it moves children from private insurance to the SCHIP.
He doesn’t seem to grasp the concept that these are uninsured kids. They have no private health insurance. And what really shoots holes in his argument is the private health industry itself—much of which backs the SCHIP bill.
Yesterday, lobbying groups for insurers, doctors and hospitals told reporters they support the bill.
As the Associated Press reported:
America’s Health Insurance Plans, the largest insurance lobbying group, endorsed the measure yesterday, undercutting Bush’s contention that the bill is a step away from private insurance and toward government-run health care.
“It repairs the safety net and is a major movement toward addressing the problems that states and governors have been trying to address, which is how to get access for children,” said Karen Ignagni, the group’s president.
Richard Umbdenstock, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association, said children without health insurance were more than twice as likely to go without care for an illness than were children with insurance. Also, uninsured children were four times as likely as insured children to seek treatment in an emergency room.
In a letter to the House, AFL-CIO Legislative Director Bill Samuel says that since SCHIP was enacted in 1997, the number of uninsured children has dropped by one-third.
But the erosion of employer-sponsored benefits has caught up with children. Since 2000, the share of Americans with employer-sponsored health insurance has dropped 7 percent, and the number of uninsured children has grown by 1 million in just the past two years…The legislation would significantly reduce the number of uninsured children in this country, thereby ensuring that millions of low-income children get the health care they need.
Christy Hardin Smith knows just how important good health care is for children. In a post on Firedoglake she writes:
Having worked with at-risk children in abuse and neglect cases, I can tell you firsthand how important early intervention health care can be for these kids. This is especially true for children with developmental and other medical delays and with chronic medical conditions, where early and appropriate health care can remediate and often help to somewhat correct issues that would cost taxpayers a lot more down the road in educational services and chronic medical care.
How could you not want to do the right thing early for a child to give them a shot at a much better life in years to come? Let alone want to help provide them with early medical care to prevent even larger problems—which would have to be paid for on the taxpayer dime in ever-increasing amounts over the years—when some preventive care could have saved that child and his community from this if it had occurred earlier? Honestly, seems pretty straightforward to me—but then, I’ve seen what miracles can occur with early developmental and medical intervention across a whole host of autism and other medical issues.
Bill Scher at Huffington Post gets straight to heart of the argument about preserving and expanding SCHIP:
Without more health insurance, more kids will get sick and die. Period.
The Senate will vote Thursday, and news report indicate that the bill will pass with a veto-proof margin there. We’ll keep you posted.
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Everyone should call Bush, and all Republicans that call themselves pro-life, but do not support life after birth, on the hypocrisy of such a stance. Put signs on your lawns and the windows of your cars calling those that oppose the expansion of SCHIP pro-death. Republicans spend billions and billions on no-bid contracts to kill people and capitalize on war in Iraq, but balk at any money, collected mostly from us workers, going to Americans. They let corporations get tax breaks for outsourcing our jobs and they act like money from us is never to go to us Americans. It’s our money! It sure as he-l is not the money of the corporations, 60% of which pay no taxes at all! They are making record profits and yet the workers get less than ever. Write your Senators and Representatives and thank them or chew them out accordingly based on whether or not they supported SCHIP. Get angry! They are screwing with us!
Has anyone noticed these huge skyscrapers owned by insurance companies? President Bush is placing the health and lives of children in second place behind these billionaire Insurance Companies. Another example of Bush destroying America, is his fix for Social Security by selling out to private insurance companies with American workers donations to the SS Trust fund. Congress already has stolen nearly 2 Trillion dollars from the SS Trust fund and is slated to steal close to 4 billion dollars this year alone. We have to unite to keep our domestic tranquility as promised in the Bill of Rights. As it is, the Constitution is merely a scrap of useless paper unless the working people stand together to make it functional.
My Senator supports Childrens Health Care.
“Thank you for contacting me regarding health coverage for children. I appreciate the time you took to write and welcome the opportunity to respond.
I share your concern for the approximately nine million children in the United States who lack health coverage. I have been a strong supporter of Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which is a federal-state partnership designed to provide health insurance coverage to low-income children. Research has shown that 62% of uninsured children are eligible for a publicly-funded health program, but are not enrolled. To improve this situation, I have supported legislation to provide outreach to increase the enrollment and participation of eligible children in these health programs.
On August 2, 2007, the Senate passed legislation to reauthorize the State Children’s Health Insurance Program by a vote of 68 to 31. This legislation invests an additional $35 billion in this successful program, ensuring that all of the 6.6 million children currently enrolled in SCHIP can remain in the program. Additionally, the bill will cover 3.2 million new children who are uninsured today.
I strongly supported this legislation, which included a provision to increase the federal tobacco tax, with all revenue generated by the increase dedicated to the reauthorization and expansion of SCHIP. I appreciate hearing your comments about this important issue and will keep your thoughts in mind when considering the final version of this legislation.”
Sincerely yours,
Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator
Universal Health Care
A poem by David G. Hurlburt 2007
Health care is our basic human right.
Now is the time to stand up and fight.
Put our money and our vote up on the line.
Get up on our feet and walk a picket line.
Dial a phone or write a letter,
Do it so every one will feel better.
Why should only rich have medical care?
And the poor kids die but Bush doesn’t care?
Get out of your chair and in to the street.
It is time for us all to vote with our feet.
Show and tell politicians, turn up the heat.
If we all fight together we can not be beat
.
The Iraqis get universal health care,
The rules of war require that its there.
Prisoners in Git-mo get medical care.
But not all Americans that’s just not fair?
What about the hard working poor?
They need medical care for sure?
The system is broken it profits the greedy.
Let us fix the system to serve the needy.
Bush and Cheney are the real Sicko’s,
Impeachment is needed don’t you know.
Denial of health care to all is a high crime,
Remove them from office it is way past time.
While we are at it Health care for profit must go.
Single payer health care for all is the way to go.
Overhead and profit is just another poison pill.
We have had enough we have taken our fill.
Skyrocketing premiums, deductibles and co-pay,
Caused by advertising, profit and big CEO pay.
It must be stopped now and here is the fix.
There is a bill in the congress HR six seven six.