The Imperfect Community

[Phaedra]

So, unless ya'll have been living under a rock lately, you've probably heard about Bush's veto of the S-CHIP renewal bill.

To wit: Schip is a state health insurance program that was founded to cover children of families living on an income of at least 250% of the poverty level who might not be able to afford private health insurance. The new, bi-partisan schip renewal bill was to prevent the current program from expiring completely and to bolster funding by $50B over five years by raising taxes on the tobacco industry by $0.40 on cigarette packs.

If the bill passed, states would not only be able to keep most of their current children insured, but would also be able to make a dent in the approximately 10 billion U.S. kids who are uninsured and as such lack preventative health care. Bush vetoed the bill, as he said he would. There was an effort to garner votes for a veto, but it failed because of a lack of a paltry 13 votes.

For more information, check out this NY Times article here.

Do you agree with the reasoning behind the veto (i.e., people who are covered will leave private insurance, and passing the bill will only lead to a socialist state) or not? How (if at all) will this affect you, or the parents around you? Discuss.

[peglegginmegan]

We will lose Chloe's insurance. And neither of us have insurance to cover her with. I don't know what we'll do, we really don't have any options.

If moving towards a socialist state means that my child can get medical care when she needs it, then so be it. It's really irresponsible that no one has come up with a compromise yet. Bush will be gone soon, why couldn't they bide their time?

[Scout]

It's bullshit. Denying healthcare to children in favor of hypothetical financial benefits to fucking insurance companies?? Priceless Republican move right there.

[Jessica]

This is one of the very few times I am going to applaud George Bush for having the balls to be a Republican.

SCHIP is supposed to be for children of disadvantaged homes. The income standards that the Dems are proposing in some states would allow my children to go on SCHIP and we have insurance coverage through my employer. In theory, I could drop that insurance, move to SCHIP and have the tax payers pay for my children.

This is a move towards socialized medicine. Children of the working (or unemployed) poor should have access to routine and crisis care, it should not extend to middle class/upper middle-class families. The government is not capable of managing health care for all. It doesn't work and for all of you that think Canada is an Oasis of healthcare, let me tell you, I get calls every single day from Canadians BEGGING me to come to our hospital and telling me that if we don't allow them to come to our hospital, they will die waiting for the same services we provide.

Either we agree to mediocre medicine for all (or willing to allow people to die waiting for life saving medicine) or we keep the system we have now that allows us to pay for the kind of care we choose.

Just remember, social security is run by the government and is a disaster. I know some people want their entire lives and decisions made by the government, but a lot of people are not comfortable with that nor do they believe that to be what our nation was built on, so, through our government of checks and balances is the only way to push or deny these kinds of programs.

Bush has already passed the largest entitlement program in the history of America with his Medicare plan and what people fail to forget, as we move towards socialized medicine, the more taxes go up (40%, 50%, 60%) to cover mediocre healthcare for all. I don't want it. I don't want the government to manage mediocre care for my family. It's totally un-American. It's nothing more than redistribution of wealth. Middle class families should pay for their own healthcare and not drain the system!

[Petulant Pixie]

[Jessica]

[peglegginmegan]

Say you live in Illinois, you're a family of 4 making $75,000 a year. But neither spouse works for a company where insurance is offered, and to privately pay for insurance costs $1400 a month. Right there, your income drops to $58,200 a year. If you're offered CHIP, you can put your children on it and pay a monthly premium that's determined by your income. You still have to pay privately for your own insurance, so you are taking some responsibility.

Then say, you live in West Virginia. You're a family of four, and last year you made just under 15,000. CHIP doesn't get reauthorized because of a political debate about socialism. One child loses insurance, the parents never had any to begin with, and the second child will lose Medicaid within the next two years. So you patch together coverage through emergency rooms and scrounge together money for quickcare centers and prescriptions whenever you can. Then when the bill comes, you just have to set it aside (like you already do for yourself) or apply for charity care from the hospital. How do you think that money gets made up? Hospitals begin to charge more for services from insurance companies, everyone's premium rises, and before you know it fewer employers are offering coverage because it's just too expensive. Then we're right back to this whole socialized medicine discussion.

[Jessica]

[Petulant Pixie]

I thought it was 250% of the poverty rate.

I am just going to totally disagree here. I know people in Europe and Canada and no, they aren't dying waiting for treatment. Their system works and it works better than ours and they pity our ignorance about it. I do too.

[Jessica]