Bush vetoes SCHIP expansion

[maddythebeagle]

Bush vetoes child health insurance plan - Yahoo! News


This is the health care program for poor kids with some states allowing for their parents to also join...

Seems more about trying to backdoor adults into this....

 

[dumpster56]

What gets me here is that poor kids get treatment, they end up in emergency rooms all around the country and get seen.

This is why our system is garbage. Its I'Ve got mines and the heck with the rest of ya.

Sorry if we can spend almost 600 BILLION for a war in Iraq we can have healthcare for every american.

 

[haha]

Compassionate conservatism. I say if illegals can get care, homegrown children should too.

Ha

 

[ziggy29]

Part of the problem is that it was much, much more than "poor kids" being covered. If you're going to cover kids of parents earning as much as $80,000 a year, then cover ME, too!

 

[samclem]

Free biscuits for everyone! Let those fat cats pay for it.*

* Fat cat = anyone with an earned income above 50K or with total assets above 150K, home vale not included. You're in the upper crust you know, now pay up, you oppressors of the proletariat!

 

[FinallyRetired]

Thanks goodness we don't have to come up with $35B over five years for children's health, no way can we afford that. We can now focus on coming up with $10B per month for the Iraq war.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Please enlighten me as to why we should pay for the medical insurance for the children of clearly middle class families ?

 

[Texas Proud]

What gets me here is that poor kids get treatment, they end up in emergency rooms all around the country and get seen.

This is why our system is garbage. Its I'Ve got mines and the heck with the rest of ya.

Sorry if we can spend almost 600 BILLION for a war in Iraq we can have healthcare for every american.

My problem is what level of healthcare for all Americans

If I was rich, I would want to be able to buy the best medical procedures known to man for me... but in a 'universal health' that is talked about, that is not available... I get the same level of service that the homeless guy has.. not to capitalistic is it

And BTW, almost all Americans DO have 'healthcare' in some regard... if you break a bone it gets fixed, if you are in a car accident, you get fixed... have a heart attack and make it to the hospital, you get treatment... even if you never pay for it. It is the other treatments that you have to have insurance or money for.

 

[justin]

Please enlighten me as to why we should pay for the medical insurance for the children of clearly middle class families ?

That way, I can R a little more E!

 

[samclem]

Please enlighten me as to why we should pay for the medical insurance for the children of clearly middle class families ?

I think it's part of the new plan to incrementally achieve national (e.g. taxpayer-financed) health care.

Step 1) Medicare for all those over 65. Done.

Step 2) SCHIP for a majority of kids. If this expansion fails, I predict:
Step 2B) Declare virtually all children as being "indigent" by virtue of their own earned income. Hey, most of these tykes earn almost nothing! Why should working moms and dads have to pay for health care for individuals who aren't even - -them?

Step 3) Raise taxes to pay for Step 2B and other gotta-have entitlement programs. Then, the after-tax income of 75% of the adults between 18 and 65 will make them eligible for (you guessed it!): Medicaid!

Step 4) The remaining 25% of working adults become incensed by the tax burden. Half of them quit working (they get coverage under Medicaid.) The other half leave the country for a capitalist nation. Voila! Universal coverage is achieved!

 

[HFWR]

It's a Democrat tactic that, now that Bush has vetoed it, will be used to beat Republicans over the head for vetoing health care for the poor...

 

[FinallyRetired]

Please enlighten me as to why we should pay for the medical insurance for the children of clearly middle class families ?

Are you a smoker? It was smokers who were going to pay, which I think is sick in itself. But if you dislike $35B over 5 years, $7B per year, which you were probably not even going to pay for, you must be livid over the $120 to $200B per year that you are going to pay for -- and that's going into a rathole in Iraq.

 

[unclemick]

Let's not blow a gasket over this one folks - medical in some form is going to be a periennial - I expect to be debating in some form when I croak in 20 yrs at precisely 84.6 RMD life expectancy wise.

heh heh heh - I think I read over at Raddr's forum a while back over 40% of the total med $ spent in the US is already on the governments nickle? aka da taxpayer.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Are you a smoker? It was smokers who were going to pay, which I think is sick in itself. But if you dislike $35B over 5 years, $7B per year, which you were probably not even going to pay for, you must be livid over the $120 to $200B per year that you are going to pay for -- and that's going into a rathole in Iraq.

No I am not a smoker.

My issue with this program is that it is a benefit that many of the targeted group could and should pay for themselves. They are the benficiaries and therefore they should pay.

I want something, but I don't want to pay for it so lets get congress to take money from you to give to me.

The tactics of this program, and the inherent unfairness of it are what gets me going.

 

[FinallyRetired]

No I am not a smoker.

My issue with this program is that it is a benefit that many of the targeted group could and should pay for themselves. They are the benficiaries and therefore they should pay.

I want something, but I don't want to pay for it so lets get congress to take money from you to give to me.

The tactics of this program, and the inherent unfairness of it are what gets me going.

I really don't know much about this bill, so am not going to defend it. What irks me is the reason Bush used to veto the bill - that it costs too much. While at the same time he asks for 120B+ per year for a war that's bankrupting our country and wearing down our nation's finest.

 

[Beststash]

I view this veto by Bush as simply his ideology. He has only used his veto 3 times. 1st for stem cell research, 2nd for defense budget that contained time lines for withdrawal from Iraq, and now for SCHIP.

He has no problem spending money in any fashion imaginable as long as it goes to those he thinks deserve it. Never once was spending an issue before - this is simply saying that domestic spending by the government in his view is considered socialism - sigh.

Peace

 

[dumpster56]

My problem is what level of healthcare for all Americans

If I was rich, I would want to be able to buy the best medical procedures known to man for me... but in a 'universal health' that is talked about, that is not available... I get the same level of service that the homeless guy has.. not to capitalistic is it

And BTW, almost all Americans DO have 'healthcare' in some regard... if you break a bone it gets fixed, if you are in a car accident, you get fixed... have a heart attack and make it to the hospital, you get treatment... even if you never pay for it. It is the other treatments that you have to have insurance or money for.

Uh a heart attack and then find out the company you worked for did not pay their premium and went belly up and then the guy had a stroke and then he had 750,000 in bills and guess what THEY LOST THEIR HOUSE!!!!! Two months ago! The system is BROKEN!

 

[samclem]

Oh, yeah, this President is a real penny-pincher on domestic spending.

Oh, wait, a bolt of reality:
Washington Post, Feb 9th, 2005:
"The White House released budget figures yesterday indicating that the new Medicare prescription drug benefit will cost more than $1.2 trillion in the coming decade, a much higher price tag than President Bush suggested when he narrowly won passage of the law in late 2003."

 

[dumpster56]

Oh, yeah, this President is a real penny-pincher on domestic spending.

Oh, wait, a bolt of reality:
Washington Post, Feb 9th, 2005:
"The White House released budget figures yesterday indicating that the new Medicare prescription drug benefit will cost more than $1.2 trillion in the coming decade, a much higher price tag than President Bush suggested when he narrowly won passage of the law in late 2003."

Great program for the pharma companies, the ONLY reason he signed the bill and you know it!

 

[Wags]

Great program for the pharma companies, the ONLY reason he signed the bill and you know it!

You are right on the $$$$.

The Congress and Old George W could have passed a bill in which the price of drugs would have been negotiated like it is done in the VA system. Instead they chose to stick it (once again)to the American people, while they lined their own pockets with lobbyist $$$$.

It's sad but true.

 

[tomz]

Here are some facts about the SCHIP renewal, which received bipartisan support:

Under the proposal, families of four earning about $60,000 a year would qualify for the program in most states - though in New York, families earning as much as $83,000 might enroll, but only if the Health and Human Services Department approves a waiver. Seventy to 80% of children in the program would be from families earning less than twice the poverty level ($20,650 for a family of four).

SCHIP is a grant program. States get money from the feds and then use the money to purchase private insurance. Each state has its own rules (like Medicaid). However, the feds have to approve the state plans.

If you want more facts, go here. It's a little long, but it gives a more balanced analysis than the stuff you get on Fox news.

 

[samclem]

tomz,
Thanks for the info and link.
$60K a year--families just scraping by! Nope, this certainly wasn't an expansion of the welfare state.

 

[dex]

U.S. National Debt Clock

I'm glad I will probably be dead when this bill comes due. I wonder what the debt collection telephone call will be like?

Hello, Ms/Mr. USA you need to start showing some effort in paying your bills. Have you thought about a garage sale this Saturday? Sell some things you aren't using - some of those parks - Yosemite - or monuments - Washington.

I think the baby boomer generation will be looked at as the debt generation.

The American Empire was a nice experiment while it lasted.

 

[MasterBlaster]

That's the real issue...

That we can't pay for the entitlements that we have already promised. Let alone by adding more entitlements.

 

[tomz]

SCHIP was never intended to cover "the poor".

Bush also misstated the intent of the SCHIP program by claiming it "was meant to help poor children." That's false as well. Poor children, defined as those in families below the official federal poverty level, were already covered by Medicaid. The stated intent of Congress when it established the program in 1997 was to expand coverage beyond those who were poor to "uninsured low-income" children. And in Washington-speak, there's a significant difference between "poor" and "low-income."

SCHIP has bipartisan support. (Not much does these days). The funding for the expansion was going to be paid for by taxing cigarettes so it isn't more deficit spending. Taxing cigarettes may not appeal to you. Fine. If you don't like SCHIP and what it represents, fine. I happen to support the program. I read a lot of nonsense about SCHIP and most of it starts with the President.