Children Need Medical Care, Too

(The New Republic)  This column was written by the editors of The New Republic.

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Say this much for our president: He is consistent. Back in the 1990s, when he was still governor of Texas, he had an opportunity to help some of his neediest constituents get affordable medical care. The federal government had just created the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or S-CHIP, making billions in new spending available to states that created public insurance programs for poor kids and their families. While even some of his fellow Republican governors were jumping at the opportunity, Bush balked. The program might get expensive in the long run, he feared. And, oh dear, it would mean more government. So Bush fought efforts to create an expansive S-CHIP program in Texas, arguing a minimalist version would be better, even though the state had one of the highest proportions of uninsured residents in the country.

The Texas legislature, though hardly a bastion of socialism, didn't see things Bush's way — and bullied him into supporting a bigger program. But now, as president, Bush is waging the same fight all over again. S-CHIP is up for reauthorization this year. With even more Americans uninsured than in the '90s, Congress seems inclined to expand it so that it can cover more people. Under a new bipartisan proposal in the Senate, S-CHIP funding would increase by $35 billion over the next five years, allowing it to reach many of the children who still lack insurance.

But Bush, backed by some of his more conservative allies, wants no part of this. He's willing to reauthorize the program, but he also wants to restrict it — by, among other things, limiting eligibility to only those people who are below 200 percent of the poverty level. Under his counterproposal, at least 17 states would actually lose S-CHIP funding, meaning that more kids and families in desperate need of medical insurance would go without.

Why the resistance? Money, for one thing. To pay for the expansions, Democrats have proposed raising taxes on cigarettes and rescinding some of the unnecessary subsidies Bush's Medicare drug plan famously throws at insurance companies — steps that are no more popular with this administration than with its supporters in the tobacco and insurance lobbies. But the fight is also philosophical. Bush and his allies object that, for every 10 people who gain insurance through S-CHIP expansions, between two and five fewer will get private insurance — since employers, particularly those with low-income workers, will be less likely to offer coverage once the public alternative is available.

But this hardly matters as long as the net effect is an expansion of insurance — which clearly is the case here, as the Congressional Budget Office recently concluded. Thanks to S-CHIP, the number of people without health insurance today is much lower than it might be otherwise; if the program expands, it will be even lower in the future. To put it in human terms, that means millions of more kids getting their regular checkups and — when they need it — more serious medical care.

Of course, what really spooks Bush and the right is the possibility that S-CHIP could be a stepping stone to universal coverage. It's a legitimate fear. If Americans notice what a good job government has done insuring kids, they might clamor to have it cover more adults, too — which, come to think of it, sounds like a pretty good idea as well.


By the editors of The New Republic
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[standlee5]

. Once they're born they're on their own.
Posted by sparks224 at 11:52 PM : Jul 16, 2007

Exactly, as well they should be (when they grow up that is). If they can't make it here then they can't make it anywhere. Come on where's the personal responsibilty. We've had a booming economy for two decades and people still can't seem to manage. STEP ONE. Get a job. STEP TWO, buy health insurance no matter how much it costs or take the time to get it through your state. Also don't come here from another country and think you're going to jump right into the middle class with all the bells and whistles, it takes a few generations to assimilate and compete.

[drinuk]

Bush, Rockafella, the majority of Congress and the likes of Gates fully support Big Pharma and whilst they do affordable healthcare in America is a dream.
The whole mess is a wicked conspiracy and could be described as genocide. However the answer is simple, America, put Dr Ron Paul into the White House!

[sclaires]

And what is to happen to the children who do not have health insurance???? Are they to do without health care with the result that they develop chronic health problems or die as the result????

I keep wondering where GWB's brains are. Apparently they are not in his head and what he does have he doesn't use.

[tucano2]

This is yet another big boost for Clinton's single-payer, single-coverage plan. Thank you Mr Bush for helping what needs done, even though you did not mean to.

[eskieville1]

I want universal health care now! Health care costs bankrupted my sister's family because they did not have health insurance. I am tired of waiting for the "hidden hand " of the market to establish competition and bring down costs!I know I am going to have to pay more taxes to support the new system. We already have the most expensive health care in the world and it is a mess. WE CAN DO BETTER! The private sector has fail;ed us and should not be given another chance with health care.

[rushman71]

Man, it sure is nice to see that the government DOES give out free health insurance coverage, to anyone BUT their own US citizens.

[brianbwb-2009]

The pseudocons like to say competition motivates innovation and improvement. This is true when there is real competition, but in the real world Big Pharma and Insurance collude so there is no real competition, prices rise, product quality diminishes, and only the rich can afford health care, education, and other vital infrastructure components that have been "privatized".

The pseudolibs have been too afraid of losing the support of the "almost fascist" component of their constituency, they don't resist the misinformation put out there, they march lockstep together, both sides enjoying the kickbacks from the corrupt lobbies.

A government administered health care program affordable by and available to all US citizens will provide the competition necessary to pressure the health care "industry" to reign in prices and improve the quality of their products and services.

[sparks224]

Conservatives only care about the "unborn" childeren. Once they're born they're on their own.

[vietnam69-70]

Bush is more concerned about maintaining profits for cigarette corporations than to basic health care access for our nation's children.

Of course Bush grew up as the child of a Congressman who had government health insurance ... and his children have had insurance from various government sources ... so he has no clue of what poor Americans who do not qualify for Medicaid and who cannot afford or qualify (vis pre-existing conditions) for health insurance are going through ... especially those children who are suffering with untreated medical conditions.

But no. By Bush's perverse calculus, maintaining cigarette companies' billions $$$ in sales and profits is so much more important.

[standlee5]

If all of America's children need free health care what about the non-American children? Do we send the bill to their country of origin? And do middle class kids get free health care too. What's the insentive for me to work 60 hour weeks to pay for my own stuff when I could get it for free.