Opinion: Veto-proof coalition needed for children's sake
2007-08-08
Source: Billings Gazette
Sen. Max Baucus' bill to reauthorize the States Children's Health Insurance Program garnered an impressive veto-proof majority in the Senate last week. Eighteen GOP senators joined their Democratic colleagues in recognizing the value of caring for children. Montana Sen. Jon Tester supported the children's health legislation. Unfortunately, Wyoming's two Republican senators did not. They sided with President Bush who has threatened to veto the bill.
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rss feedOver in the House, a more ambitious and expensive SCHIP bill won approval by a narrow majority on a mostly party-line vote of 225 to 204 that wouldn't thwart the promised Bush veto. Montana Republican Denny Rehberg and Wyoming Republican Barbara Cubin voted against the bill, which would continue the successful children's program and make some important consumer-friendly, taxpayer-friendly changes in Medicare.
With Bush's opposition, legislation that should have sailed through Congress is being dragged into partisan feuds. SCHIP, which covers millions of low- to moderate-income U.S. children will expire Sept. 30 unless Congress and Bush reauthorize it.
The Senate bill, authored by Baucus and Republicans Charles Grassley and Orrin Hatch, is strictly an SCHIP bill and it would be less costly than the House bill. The conference committee, which will include Baucus, needs to agree on a bill that's more like the Senate version than the House version. But there are important Medicare improvements in the House bill that also should become law, either as part of the SCHIP bill or in a separate bill.
Like Medicare for kids
The label of "socialized medicine" was thrown at CHIP when it was introduced 10 years ago. And a new group of children's health coverage opponents, led by President Bush, is throwing around that misnomer again. Ten years of helping American children get needed health care from private doctors, clinics, hospitals has shown SCHIP is government financing of health care like Medicare for kids.
Among those applauding the House and Senate bills is AARP. Why does an organization whose members are all 50 years old or older want health coverage for children? For one thing, many AARP members are raising their grandchildren, said Pat Callbeck Harper, spokeswoman for AARP Montana. The broad coalition of CHIP proponents includes care providers such as the American Medical Association, American Nurses Association, VHA Inc. and the Catholic Health Association of the United States and charitable organizations including Lutheran Services in America, March of Dimes, National Council of Churches of Christ and Society of St. Vincent de Paul.
