Editorials, Op-Eds Discuss SCHIP Reauthorization, Veto Threat

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Article Date: 03 Oct 2007 - 10:00 PDT

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Summaries of several editorials and opinion pieces that examine the debate over compromise legislation to reauthorize and expand SCHIP, as well as related issues, appear below.

Editorials

• Boston Herald: "Shame on the Democrats (and their Republican helpers) for trotting out the old 'for the children' mantra in support of bad policy and political posturing," a Herald editorial writes. The editorial states that that the compromise SCHIP bill would take "money from the poor to give to the less-poor, perhaps even the well-off," adding, "The Democrats are trashing their own principles" and "need to go back to the drawing board" (Boston Herald, 9/30).
  
  
• Chicago Tribune: "We urge President Bush to sign" the compromise SCHIP bill, and, in the event that "he vetoes it, Congress should override that decision," according to a Tribune editorial. "We share the concern over stealthy leaps toward government-sponsored universal health coverage," but "this bill doesn't do that," the editorial states, adding, "It's a reasonable expansion of a vital program" (Chicago Tribune, 9/30).
  
  
• Fort Worth Star-Telegram: "Even with the added funds under the bill, millions of children in the U.S. still will be without health insurance," and "that simply ought not be," according to a Star-Telegram editorial. The editorial concludes, "Let the president veto it if he likes. That is his prerogative," but "Congress should waste no time overriding that veto" (Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 9/29).
  
  
• Las Vegas Sun: "Expanding the children's health program really shouldn't have been a partisan issue, and it wasn't for many conservative Republicans who joined with Democrats in voting for this legislation," according to a Sun editorial. However, "because of such failed and uncaring leadership as that exhibited by" lawmakers who voted against the bill and are "bound and determined to stand by Bush, thousands of Nevada's children who now lack access to adequate health care won't be eligible to receive" coverage under SCHIP (Las Vegas Sun, 9/30).
  
  
• Newark Star-Ledger: "There is only one reason for any senator or representative to support Bush's misguided determination to block effective action to reduce the number of uninsured American children," and that "would be to value lockstep loyalty to the president above the needs of the people," according to a Star-Ledger editorial. "Congress -- including every elected representative from New Jersey -- needs to make sure the SCHIP legislation is adopted," the editorial concludes (Newark Star-Ledger, 10/1).
  

Opinion Pieces

• Mike King, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "The Bush White House shoulders most of the blame" for the failure to reauthorize SCHIP because, after "saying little or nothing about the program in his first six years in office, the president suddenly decided that making health insurance more available for children constitutes government intrusion into the private marketplace," Journal-Constitution editor King writes in an opinion piece. King writes that, "by 2009, perhaps a new Congress and a new president will put politics aside and adequately fund a successful children's health insurance program that has the massive support of the American public" (King, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 9/30).
  
  
• Steve Huntley, Chicago Sun-Times: An $8 billion expansion of SCHIP, which the Congressional Budget Office "estimates ... is enough to continue providing health care to those originally targeted by Congress," would represent a "reasonable approach to adopt as the country gears up for a big conversation on health care in next year's campaign and with the election of a new president," columnist Huntley writes in a Sun-Times opinion piece. Huntley adds, "That's the best arena for dealing with the country's real issues on health care, the uninsured and the uninsurable, not via a stealth move toward government insurance through the kids' health insurance program" (Huntley, Chicago Sun-Times, 9/30).
  
  
• Carlos Guerra, San Antonio Express-News: "Whether the president -- whose home state has 1.4 million uninsured children, more than any other, and most of whom qualify for CHIP or Medicaid -- makes good on his veto threat remains to be seen," columnist Guerra writes in an Express-News opinion piece. He asks, "Is it possible that politicians would go on record as being against children visiting doctors regularly, so that unattended earaches won't result in ruptured eardrums, and coughs won't escalate into life-threatening pneumonia that requires expensive pediatric hospitalization?" (Guerra, San Antonio Express-News, 9/29).
  

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