Just last week we learned that the White House is not only strongly resisting a bipartisan congressional effort to expand the Children’s Health Insurance Plan to include 4 million uninsured kids in the U.S., but our “compassionate conservative” president is also forcing states to limit access for children, too.
Bush’s timing couldn’t be much worse. The latest report from the Census Bureau showed that 8.7 million kids are now uninsured. What’s more the increase — 11.7% of kids lack coverage, up from 10.9% in 2005 — is higher than in the adult population.
Since the passage of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program in 1997 through 2004, the program succeeded in reducing the percentage of uninsured kids, while the percentage of uninsured adults — not served by any new public insurance plan — has gone up.
But in the last two years, we’re seeing more kids go without insurance. Why? Fewer private-sector employers are providing sufficient coverage. Making the expansion of SCHIP even more critical if we are to keep our kids healthy.
Kathleen Stoll, health policy director for Families USA, said, “Despite SCHIP’s earlier success in decreasing the number of uninsured children, their numbers have risen for the second straight year because of a decline in employer-based coverage. Today census numbers only confirm what state officials and health care advocates have seen first-hand — SCHIP resources must be increased to meet the health care needs of the increasing number of uninsured children.”
It’s against this backdrop that Bush has decided to fight against greater access to healthcare for U.S. children — because he has philosophical problems with a bipartisan bill.
Think about that: according to the most recent data, there was an increase of more than 600,000 in the number of children that were uninsured last year, and the president responds by saying he’ll veto budget-neutral legislation to expand access to children’s healthcare. (“Oh,” the president added, “and give me another $50 billion for a failed Iraq policy, or else.”)
For what it’s worth, a couple of high-profile governors — one Dem, one Republican — are pushing back.
New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer joined California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday in sending a letter to the White House imploring President Bush to change course on health care.
“You have two governors, two of the largest states in the nation, different parties, agreeing on the fundamental precept of what good health care is all about,” Spitzer said during a daylong visit to the New York State Fair. “I hope and believe it will make him rethink what he has done.”
New guidelines announced last week by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will require many children to be uninsured for a full year before they have access to government-subsidized coverage. The new rules effectively block New York’s already approved expansion of children’s health insurance and roll back expansions or pending plans in 17 other states and the District of Columbia.
“CMS has promulgated rules that would be devastating to the nation and to the state of New York because they will preclude us from covering every child in the state with health insurance,” said Spitzer, a Democrat who has vowed to take court action if necessary. “It is bad policy. It is a violation of the basic decency that argues in favor of giving kids health insurance.”
For all the recent talk about Bush getting a “fresh start” after resignations from Rove and Gonzlaes, and for all the president’s fears that his entire second term will feature exactly zero victories on domestic policy, leaving him with a pathetic legacy, here’s a chance for Bush to actually help millions of kids get medical care they otherwise can’t afford.
Why on earth would he turn this opportunity down?