Children's Health Care ... Is the President's Veto a sign of battles to come?

We all know about warning signals. There are the easy ones, like a red light that tells us to stop or a yellow light saying caution. We also know about other kinds of warning signals, e.g., when the fish show up dead on the shore, we know we have an environmental disaster on our hands .... and that we'd better clean it up, or we'll be sick from the water, too.

Now, Ron Brownstein, writing for National Journal, has identified a new warning signal, saying, "The current debate (on children's health care) is a prelude to next year's fight over broader health care reform."

President Bush said he vetoed the bill because the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) would direct its benefits toward middle class families who don't need the help. However, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office refutes, finding that 85 percent of the nearly 4 million uninsured children the bill would add to the rolls live in families already eligible for the program.

In fact, the Urban Institute found that three-fourths of the children who would be newly enrolled, live in families who earn less than twice the federal poverty level, or about $41,000 for a family of four.

For rural children, the situation becomes particularly dire. The Carsey Institute's studies on rural children's health care finds there is growing need, with rural children's dependence on SCHIP for health care six percent higher than for urban children.

All of us from rural areas of the country have stories to tell ... about how diminished our small -- now smaller, home towns, have become as the good jobs left town and many of the remaining families have more trouble making ends meet. Now, some of us are counting on the emerging bio-fuel renewable energy industry to bring back some of those new jobs. But meanwhile, our children don't have time to wait.

What the President really meant with his veto, is that he wants to send a message to middle class voters that assistance on health insurance will cost more than it's worth. It's the same message that the old "Harry and Louise" political ad used to kill Bill and Hillary Clinton's proposal for universal health insurance coverage. That old "Harry & Louise ad, by the way, is now used in Wikipedia as a primary example of modern propaganda, i.e., how ads can twist facts and confuse their audience.

However Brownstein also reminds us, "Since then, the cycle of rising health care costs and declining access has threatened more middle-class families: Of the 1 million children who lost health insurance over the past two years, fully two in five lived in families earning more than twice the poverty level."

Congress is considering now whether to over-ride Mr. Bush's veto. We urge you to call or email your member of Congress. Ask them to support SCHIP. Click below to find out how to email your Representative and Senators.

United State House of Representatives

United States Senate

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