Keep Out of the Reach of Children
August 2nd, 2007 at 4:53 pm
Predictably, the debate in Washington over the future of the Children’s Health Insurance Program has sunk to sloganeering. The Democratic proposals to expand the program are said to protect poor kids; while Republicans claim their efforts to limit CHIP will save the country from the specter of socialized medicine.
The Democratic leadership in the U.S. House narrowly passed its CHIP bill yesterday. It would spend an extra $50 billion on CHIP over five years. (the Senate plan would spend $35 billion).
Congress must reauthorize CHIP, which provides low-cost health insurance to kids of working families, by Sept. 30 or the program will vanish. It’s almost certain that lawmakers will keep CHIP around — the question is whether to expand it or not.
The Dallas Morning News ran an op-ed today by our own Sen. John Cornyn in which the good senator explains why he’s supporting efforts to limit CHIP. The GOP plan Cornyn backs would “expand” CHIP by only $9 billion. The president, who’s threatened a veto, wants a measly $5 billion increase. (Such a small raise would actually amount to a cut, since rising medical costs would require much more funding just to maintain the program at its current level.) Cornyn contends an expansion would simply encourage families to drop private insurance in favor of government coverage.
So who does CHIP really serve? It’s true that some states, mainly in Yankee-land, have expanded their CHIP coverage to include families making 400 percent of the poverty level and even to include some adults.
What Cornyn overlooks, however, is all the uninsured kids out there. Recent federal studies estimate about seven million uninsured children nationwide. (Texas alone has 1.4 million– way to go team!)
Federal studies estimate that five million uninsured kids are eligible for some form of government assistance. Basically, we could cover most of our uninsured children if we simply got our act together. (In Texas, roughly 60 percent of uninsured kids could be covered by CHIP or Medicaid.)
That’s reason enough for expanding CHIP. The Senate plan would cover an added three million children — setting them on the path for a healthier life.
Of course, a presidential veto could scuttle the whole shebang.
August 3rd, 2007 at 7:54 am
It never ceases to amaze me how a group of people as innocent and deserving as children get shafted during policy discussions. If you want to remove health care from poor adults, that’s one thing — but at least give kids a chance, or be willing to pump in the massive amounts of money to take care of them when they and their health problems become older.
August 3rd, 2007 at 9:01 am
Raise your hand if you’re excited about paying “private insurance.” No takers?
There is only one master of the GOP agenda: the insurance lobby. Not the children. Not families. Not taxpayers.
What we’re seeing here is the unvarnished power of money in politics. And we’re seeing the fundamental GOP principal that government should not exist — at all. It’s all social and it’s all socialized for them. Their vision of the world is 100% pay to play. Yet, no moral society, even the most Darwinian, should push a child into that zero sum game.
August 3rd, 2007 at 2:02 pm
We are not in Yankeeland but CHIP funding is already being used to cover adult illegal immigrant women in Texas.
If CHIP funding is for children, how do you justify using it this way? There is no justification for it of course.
I am growing very tired of both sides saying one thing and doing another.
August 27th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
[…] can read the background on the White House’s fight against Congressional bills to expand CHIP here. The administration also recently proposed stricter rules for CHIP that mirror the bureaucratic […]
October 27th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
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in http://tinyurl.com/6p6lb8