Families Brace for SCHIP Demise
Many Poorer Families Fear Presidential Veto Threatens Their Chidren’s Health Care
Carolyn Taylor, a full-time nursing assistant and medical technician, works hard to ensure that she is able to provide for her 11-year-old son Keith. But on Monday, she - along with thousands of others - took time off to rally in support of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.
“The rally was to let Bush know we need health insurance for our children,” said Taylor, a Baltimore resident. “We wanted to let President Bush know we are real people. He said there would be no child left behind. Well, we’re getting left behind unless he continues SCHIP.”
Gathering on the White House lawn and the steps of Congress, the throngs were joined by children who pulled red wagons filled with over a million petitions, urging Congress to expand health insurance coverage for children.
Yet, it appears that the effort may be in vain after Bush vetoed a bill on Wednesday that would have renewed and expanded SCHIP.
The program, which provides health insurance for children from families who earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to afford private insurance, was created in 1997 to address the growing number of children in the United States without health insurance coverage. It currently provides coverage for over 6.6 million kids.
Health policy experts now say low and moderate income families like the Taylors will be hit the hardest if the veto stands, and individuals fear the social and financial consequences.
“Families will experience both financial and emotional burdens trying to deal with their children’s health problems, with little societal support or encouragement,” said Shoshanna Sofaer, professor of health care policy at Baruch College in New York.
Expand… or Expire
Though the program officially expired on Sept. 30, emergency funds currently allow the program to continue - at least for the time being.
Congress has already passed legislation which would reauthorize and expand the program by adding $35 billion over five years, and covering an additional 4 million children - a plan funded by raising the federal cigarette tax by 61 cents to $1 per pack.
But the veto means that the program’s only hope is redemption by a Senate that has already shown only marginal support for the measure.
“This program has been very successful in terms of increasing insurance coverage and access for children,” said Kathleen Adams, a professor at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta. “There are 12 states which will not have enough funds to even maintain their current coverage without renewal and increased allotments.
“Unless these states use emergency funds, many children will be thrown off of insurance coverage, literally overnight.”
And this is what many parents and experts are worried about.
Tobi Drabcyk, who lives with her husband and four children in Walkersville, Md., said she would not be able to afford health care for her children unless they were covered by SCHIP.
“We are a family of six,” she said. “My husband works full time as a maintenance supervisor at an apartment community. If we paid for insurance through his work, it would cost us $700 to $1,000 a month. My husband’s salary is only $36,000 a year, and we can’t afford private insurance. It would almost be food off of our table.”
Taylor said she is in the same situation.
“If SCHIP is not renewed, it would really hurt,” she said. “It would be a strain to the family, because I would have to put my son on my health insurance plan, and would have to spend over one-fourth of my income to insure my son and myself.”
Many health policy experts agree that the veto presents a dire situation for these families.
“If the veto is sustained by Congress, more children will be uninsured than before; they will get less care, especially preventive care, and care for chronic childhood diseases, like asthma,” said Sofaer. “The health and development of many low and moderate income children will be compromised, with serious consequences for their individual futures.”
Pulling Away the Safety Net
Over the past decade, SCHIP has reduced, by one-third, the number of uninsured children in low income households - a drop from 22 percent to 15 percent, according to a report by the Commonwealth Fund.
But the success of SCHIP is perhaps more apparent on a personal level.
Taylor, whose son has been insured under SCHIP since he was one, says Keith “has been able to go to the doctor and receive care, because he has insurance. His doctor has been able to prevent him from getting sick, and to treat things early, which has kept him out of the emergency room.”
Drabcyk recounted her constant concerns when her two oldest children were not insured. “They missed some of their shots, which I worried about. Now, with SCHIP, they are all caught up.
“I used to wonder what would happen if they fell and broke their arm, and had to go the emergency room. Would they send me away? How would I pay for it? As a mother, knowing my children are insured under SCHIP, gives me a peace of mind.”
But now that these families may be forced to face such realities again, their feelings of frustration are quickly turning to anger at the Bush administration.
“It’s not fair that the president has vetoed the bill, because he has health insurance, and all the politicians have health insurance,” Taylor said. “It’s ridiculous. We live in the richest country. It doesn’t make sense we have to suffer, and we can’t afford to have healthy children.”
Drabcyk agreed. “I doubt President Bush has ever spoken to a family who uses SCHIP,” she said. “We just need a little bit of help. We would gladly pay for private health insurance if we could afford it, because we would have more choice and better doctors. But it’s not an option for people like us.
“As a mother, my children are my first priority, and I think that all children should be the nation’s priority.”
Copyright © 2007 ABC News Internet Ventures
Bush is the industry’s perfect puppet. He never questions free market dogma even when it’s held captive by monopolies.
Bombs, not Babies - a better corporate profit center to donate federal funds to.
I consider this an upfront and personal attack on America’s children, an attack on my children, by the Republicans, the Fascist Corporations and the Evilgelicals. Tit-for-tat you bastards.
This is the same administration that thinks it’s outrageous to tax estates over two million dollars. Again, this is the same administation that gave massive tax relief to the people who least need it.
http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/headlines06/0405-12.htm
There is no way that he will ever relate to anyone who is not rich. Don’t expect it.
Moveover, Congress, in spite of its postponement in attempting to override the veto, will be assailed by comments on “socialized medicine” to such an extent that the override will fail.
That’s right plenty of ‘blood money’ to ‘murkywater’ [no capital letter m, only small caps for mongrels & cowards]
To kill an innocent Iraqi boy 5 times in the back head as he runs to his dying Iraqi mother…
And NO money for health insurance for middle to low income American children..
The Bu$hCo, the “repugnicans”, the fascist Corporatists and the “Evilgelicals” are hypocrites beyond sane belief.. Bu$hCo are not only war criminals but twisted sadistic psychos who hate or despise other peoples children and that may or may not include ANY nationality….
Remember Condi Rice’s sick “birth pangs of the new middle east” diatribe… As the children of Quana in Lebanon lay dying she was wining and dining with Israels’ Prime Minister…Refusing to help enforce a cease fire on instructions from Bu$h who said at the time, “War really clarifies things…. don’t you think?”….
Need I say more…
Bush really shows how much he detests the poor and near-poor. He and cheney (no cap) are the two biggest evil terroristic men in the world today. It is domestic terror to deny health care to children. If congress will not over-ride this veto, then all of them need to be kicked out next year so we can start new.
Does bush not know that healthy low-wage workers are easier to handle than sick ones? I know that all he wants is low-wage, service, non-union workers in the US.
i think bush and cheney despise america and all that it stands for. their only purpose is to loot the treasury for their childish and cruel military adventures. i remember how bush was “EAGER” to sign the bankruptcy bill. thanks evilgelicals, right wing trash and conservascum for putting this grotesque farce of an administration back in.
simonhhh,
Your post made me cry. The depth of this evil that is Bush$Co, as you so aptly put it, is something hard for me to comprehend. I always wonder how much is intentional and how much is ignorance. Even the ignorance, though, can’t be excused. As a ‘president’, Bush has the responsibility to cure his ignorance and actually do some reading, some observing, some thinking. The intentional part of it is what really makes me shudder. How could anyone EVER condone the killing and the harming of the innocent? I don’t understand it. I will never understand it. It’s got to be madness, it’s got to be sadism.
Bush seems to be getting more evil looking all the time. Notice him standing in a group of normal looking people. It’s like the “Picture of Dorian Gray,” only this time the person is showing his inner ugliness and not the portrait.
An unintended consequence of these brutal policies may be the radicalization of the working and middle classes when everyone realizes we have nothing left to lose but our chains.
To George Bush:
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Normally, both vetoes and bill signings are observed by media with TV cameras. On this occasion, Public Enemy #1 hid from the press for this veto, http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/02/bush-veto-schip/
Bush vetoed it, but Congress can still pass it. Make the Republicans stand with their leader and deny care and coverage to children. Let them put their names on the uphold-the-veto list. Then let’s see how well their re-elections go. This is the one time when the consequences could really be felt at the next election cycle. All who vote to uphold the veto should have their names prominently and repeatedly put in newspapers and on TV ads all over the nation. Let them defend the indefensible to the voters in their districts.
collinsa…. some of the ‘infamy’ of the last six years has made me cry also…In particular this IRAQ War knowing the perpetrators conveniently dodged Vietnam and ’should’ have watched on in horror as 56,000 troops died and upwards of 3 million Vietnamese perished….That makes Bu$h and Cheney etal, war crimes particularly poignant..Then again that assumes you are dealing with sane rational men…which we are not. These Bu$hCo perpetrators are definitively ‘psychopaths’…
lillulu ….spoken perfectly. I would only add if there was ever an Article on Common Dreams that characterizes Bu$hCo twisted misaligned and misappropriated ‘theft’ of America’s archetypal character; it is Bu$h’s perverted injustice to ‘children’…
Say no more, this says it all…
TAX WAR, NOT CIGARETTES!
Really, the funding plan for SCHIP is so damn stupid, the law deserved to be vetoed. Think about it…raise the taxes on cigarettes…more smokers quit…what happens to your funding?
The Dems need to go back to the drawing board and figure out a new funding plan. How about cutting the funding for Iraq and using that money for SCHIP? There, is that brain surgery?
Smokers are the most under-represented minority in the country right now, damn close to non-persons. If the Democrats take advantage of that, they’ve lost the right to call themselves Democrats.
-I’M- a smoker, and though I do agree with puffin, I was (am) willing to bite the bullet and pay more. That’s right, I’m oh-so willing to pay a tax to help out *gasp* people I don’t even know.
I guess that makes me a communist or something.
Now, I DO think that the tax would be more useful if it were added to the big 2 kiddie killers, corn syrup and fast food.
Anyways, Bush vetoed a tax on the poor (you know, the people that smoke all the cigarettes) because it might help out some children. I guess he really ISN’T all about class, he’s an equal opportunity greed/selfishness enabler.
I’m glad Bush vetoed the bill because of the way it’s funded. It certainly isn’t fair to the smokers. Now if the tax went for smoking related illness or respiratory problems I would think differently, but children’s health Insurance is way off base. Congress should have been able to find the finances else where.
Why are the other comments not showing?
I can only come up with one word in response to this article……oppression.
……let’s face it, if the people in this country were not oppressed they wouldn’t be so likely to smoke.
I find it really hypercritical that the oppressed should pay for the oppressed. Once again this reflects neither side has our country folks best interests at heart. The name of the game is to profit at our expense. The tobacco industry would have lost profits in this deal.