Editorials, Op-Eds, Letter To Editor Examine Debate Over SCHIP

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Article Date: 17 Oct 2007 - 12:00 PDT

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

Editorials

• Charlotte Observer: "SCHIP is a praiseworthy program that has reduced the uninsurance rate of low-income children by a third. But it could do much more with adequate funding," an Observer editorial states. Lawmakers who voted against the SCHIP legislation "have the power to override the president's veto," and "they shouldn't get caught up in the smoke and mirrors that critics are offering as fact on this issue," the editorial states (Charlotte Observer, 10/15).
  
  
• New York Times: "To hear the Bush administration tell it," expanding SCHIP "would entice hordes of families to drop their private coverage and put their children on the public dole," a Times editorial states. However, there are "several things wrong with that claim," the editorial continues. "First, nobody who enrolls in SCHIP would be living on government handouts" because families "would all be paying appropriate premiums and copayments," and it also is "highly unlikely that a lot of people would drop private coverage to enroll in SCHIP," according to the Times. The editorial concludes, "When the House votes on Thursday, all legislators concerned about covering uninsured children, and improving their health as a result, should vote to override President Bush's veto" (New York Times, 10/16).

Opinion Pieces

• Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Albany Times Union: Insuring children is "a sound, long-term investment for our country's economy and for controlling health care expenses," Gillibrand writes in a Times Union opinion piece. She adds that "it is far less expensive to pay for preventing an illness than for treating a serious condition in the emergency room, where a single visit can cost thousands of dollars." Gillibrand concludes, "Providing affordable, quality health care for kids is the morally and fiscally right thing to do" (Gillibrand, Albany Times Union, 10/15).
  
  
• Mike King, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Rather than helping working parents find affordable insurance for their kids" by approving the SCHIP bill, "Bush and a small group of hard-liners in the House cling to the notion that the private insurance market is adequately serving these families," King, a Journal-Constitution editor, writes. He adds, "Indeed a decade of experience proves the private insurance market has few affordable options for families making two to three times the poverty level now, which is why governors -- including many Republicans -- are begging to expand the children's plans" (King, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 10/14).

Letter to the Editor

• Tevi Troy, Des Moines Register: "There's a better way" for Congress to ensure that children of low-income families have affordable health care than to expand SCHIP coverage to middle-class families, HHS Deputy Secretary Troy writes in a Register letter to the editor. He continues that the Bush administration "appreciates the efforts of [lawmakers who] help us obtain a short-term extension of the SCHIP program to ensure these vital services continue uninterrupted while we work to make health coverage more affordable and available to all Americans" (Troy, Des Moines Register, 10/14).

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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