Editorial, Opinion Pieces, Letter To Editor Address SCHIP Expansion, Reauthorization

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Article Date: 12 Oct 2007 - 11:00 PDT

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Summaries of an editorial, opinion pieces and a letter to the editor addressing President Bush's veto of legislation that would have reauthorized and expanded SCHIP appear below.

Editorial

• Newark Star-Ledger: In 2002, the Bush administration allowed states to cover pregnant women under SCHIP because it fit "the administration's abortion politics to say SCHIP covered 'unborn children,'" the Star-Ledger writes in an editorial. Congress should "let the president know that ... [k]eeping working-poor parents healthy after their children are born" fits with SCHIP's "goals of improving child well-being," according to the editorial (Newark Star-Ledger, 10/10).
  

Opinion Pieces

• Cynthia Tucker, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: As "ultraconservatives smear the broad expansion of SCHIP as 'socialized medicine,'" they show that "they have lost touch with the millions of Americans struggling with soaring health care costs," Tucker, a Journal-Constitution columnist, writes in an opinion piece. She continues, "Democrats say that if they don't have enough support to override the veto," they will "make Republicans pay dearly during the next elections." Tucker adds, "Are the Democrats grandstanding? Are they playing politics with a critical issue? Of course they are," concluding that SCHIP is an "issue worthy of a little grandstanding" (Tucker, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 10/10).
  
  
• Matthew Davis, Detroit News: "Americans today view government health coverage for children as fundamentally distinct from coverage for their parents and other nonelderly adults," according to a News opinion piece by Davis, an associate professor of pediatrics, internal medicine and public policy at the University of Michigan Medical School and Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. This "generation gap" in public attitudes toward government-sponsored health care could "be a daunting obstacle for major coverage reforms," but "[p]erhaps this sentiment will change if the ranks of the uninsured continue to grow." Davis notes that SCHIP supporters can look forward to their votes receiving "broad public support," and, he concludes, "Bush ... can relax because even a more robust and successful SCHIP of the future may not pave the near-term road toward broader coverage for adults, 'socialized' or otherwise" (Davis, Detroit News, 10/10).
  
  
• Peter Szilagyi et al., Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: "If the [U.S.] can provide health insurance to 40 million Americans over 65 -- whose health care is more expensive than children's -- why are we even debating providing the same services to the 6.6 million children already enrolled in SCHIP and the 4 million more who are still uninsured?" Szilagyi and colleagues at Golisano Children's Hospital write in a Democrat and Chronicle opinion piece. SCHIP "greatly increases children's access" to care, "reduces racial disparities" and "provides the most benefit to children who need it the most," the authors state (Szilagyi et al., Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 10/10).
  

Letter to the Editor

• Meri Armour, Memphis Commercial Appeal: SCHIP "provides an important bridge for low-income working families," who "have fallen between the cracks," and if there is "something we can do ... to help these children, we have a duty to do so," Armour, president of Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center in Memphis writes in a Commercial Appeal letter to the editor. "I hope Congress and the president will work together to reauthorize and expand SCHIP," the letter continues. "It's the right thing to do" because "[e]very child deserves access to excellent health care," according to Armour (Armour, Memphis Commercial Appeal, 10/10).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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