Kerry Pushes Plan to Expand Health Insurance for Children

John Kerry today outlined a plan to expand health insurance access to children.

Kerry is wrapping up a 5-day campaign swing across New Hampshire where he focused on the health care crisis facing Americans.

“I propose to give every American access to the same health coverage as a Senator or member of Congress. And I say to you today: Your family’s health is just as important as any politician’s in Washington,” said Kerry.

“There is no greater moral need in America than providing health care coverage to all our kids. My health care plan covers nearly every child in America. We can and must do no less,” said Kerry. “No parent should have to worry about whether they can afford to take a sick child to the doctor. Uninsured children are over five times more likely to have an unmet need for medical care and over three times more likely not to prescription drugs that they need.”
John Kerry’s plan to expand health insurance access to children will:

EXPAND THE CHILDRENS HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM AND MAKE SURE ELIGIBLE CHILDREN ARE SIGNED UP. Today, there are millions of uninsured children who are eligible for health care coverage under Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program but are not enrolled. By striking a new compact with the states, John Kerry will change that.

* A New Deal to Provide Health Coverage to Every Child
* Assuring Automatic Enrollment
* Making Sure More Children Are Eligible
* A Good Deal for the States To Help Our Economy. Under the Bush economy, states are cutting education, including teacher layoffs, school closures, shortened school years, and higher tuitions. Some 17 states raised taxes significantly in the current fiscal year, and some 25 governors have proposed raising taxes for the coming year. And states are being forced to cut back on homeland security and public safety. These policies are leading to more layoffs and slower economic recovery. The Kerry plan would provide states with real fiscal relief -- the Kerry compact with the states on Medicaid and CHIP would assure states an extra $15 billion in the first years.

PROTECT MEDICAID. More than 98,000 New Hampshire residents – including 60,000 children rely on Medicaid for their health coverage. The Bush Administration wants to deliver Medicaid funding in “block-grants” to states, making it likely the program will be underfunded and cutbacks will be necessary. Medicaid protects some of our most vulnerable citizens, including people with disabilities, people in nursing homes and pregnant women. John Kerry will protect Medicaid by assuring that states are given money based on the number of people they covered.

MAKE PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE AFFORDABLE FOR EVERY AMERICAN. Many parents do not have coverage at their workplace. John Kerry will also provide an affordable place for parents to buy coverage for their kids.

* Allow Every American Access to the Same Health Plan As Members of Congress.
* Assistance to Families and Small Business So They Can Afford Coverage.
* Lowering the Cost of Health Insurance.
http://www.johnkerry.com/news/releases/pr_2003_1014a.html

Kerry justs keeps at it, enunciating his postions, pushing progressive policies, showing people that there is a real alternative to direction the country's been headed in.

a crisis of access to health insurance. Here are some of the problems I see:

Poor nutrition (see Fast Food Nation) and rampant obesity
Profiteering by the drug companies (causing not just high prices but the oxycontin addiction epidemic, etc.)
Stressful and unhealthy lifestyles caused by working too many hours
Lack of ergonomic protection (Here is WA there is a ballot initiative to prohibit this now and forever and it is one of the most evil initiatives I have ever seen.)
Doctors influenced far too much by the profit motive
Medical professionals not wanting to work in rural areas
Severe shortage of nurses
Shortage of physicians in certain specialties, especially geriatrics
Baby boom generation near old age
Inability of our current government to fight the spread of AIDS because of twisted morality of the people in power now
Too much reliance on the automobile, causing environmental problems and forcing people to spend too much time driving and sitting in traffic jams, which is unhealthy
Lack of will to realistically address priorities in health care to emphasize prevention instead of the drams of expense treatment (Why aren't the pro-lifers demanding pre-natal care for every pregant woman?)
Lack of preventive dental care for many Americans
Looming increase in environment-related illness caused by dismantling of environmental protecitions by the Bush administration
Rise in health care costs disproportionate to general inflation
Basic unworkableness of tying health insurance to employment (how can unhealthy people work??!!)
Flood of Canadians swamping our health care system (OH, WAIT, THAT'S A LIE PERPETRATED BY THE RIGHT WING PROPAGANDA MACHINE!!!! I live near Canada and I can tell you that Canadians come over to shop, gamble, and get some sun in sunny states, and rarely to get health care.)

and for many of these issues, the real long-range solution will be to take the profit motive out of health care with a single-payer system. But, I agree with Ted Kennedy:

Kennedy also said he supports Kerry's health insurance proposal, although he favors a more sweeping approach.

During a late-morning rally with Kerry at Hoover High School, Kennedy praised Kerry's health-care proposal, namely the component that would allow uninsured Americans access to the same type of health insurance members of Congress have.

"John Kerry believes, as I believe, if it's good enough for the members of Congress and good enough for the president of the United States, it's good enough for the people of Des Moines, it's good enough for the people of Iowa," Kennedy told the crowd of roughly 400 in the school gymnasium.

In the interview afterward, Kennedy said he remains a proponent of a single-payer system, the type of government-run universal health care that President Bill Clinton proposed in 1994. Kennedy said he supports Kerry's, which builds on programs without the establishment of a large bureaucracy, because the Clinton plan's failure in Congress made the
concept of a single-payer program politically unpopular.
http://www.johnkerry.com/news/clips/news_2003_0928a.html

I believe we need single-payer, but we can't give up on incremental steps towards more health care coverage, just because it falls short of our ultimate goal.

Addressing some of the other issues you raise, I'd also like to point out Kerry's plan for Environmental Justice, his longstanding support for OSHA, but more than that, his understanding of the complexity of these issues and unwillingness to settle for sound-bite level policies.

I know it's a lot easier for me to criticize than to figure out how to get where we need to be and I do think Kerry has done some good work on that and the other related issues. Thanks for the links!

Maybe we need an overhaul of health care in the country instead of trying to prop up the medicaid system. Why is it that every other civilized country in the world has a nationalized health care system? Maybe it's not safe to talk about that stuff until Bush is out of office, so I can understand the tip toeing, but I would like to know how candidates stand on this issue.

I'm not sure what you're saying here.