The way I see the SCHIP debate!!!!!!!

It doesn't matter if the families are making 83,000.00 a year. It doesn't matter if the children aren't poor. It doesn't matter if adults are on the program.. BECAUSE.....

All public owned corporations are only designed to do ONE THING! Maximize profits for their shareholders. EVERY quarter, Wall Street puts out estimated earning reports and these companies either "beat the street" or the firms sell their stock. It isn't even done by humans anymore. It's all automated technical trading programs.

A corporation has three concerns. Their shareholders, their customers and their employees. IN THAT ORDER! In the health care business, the customer is the insuree.. BUT the shareholder comes FIRST! That's why when you have private insurance and go to the hospital they DENY you. They are increasing the shareholders profits the only way they can by NOT DELIVERING THE SERVICE! This is what Sicko was about. The INSURED not the uninsured!

There was NEVER a for-profit health care system in the US until a couple of decades ago. All our hospitals were NON-PROFIT. Everybody knew that FOR PROFIT healthcare wouldn't work because sick people don't have a choice of whether to buy a product or not. NON PROFIT HEALTHCARE IS AN AMERICAN TRADITION! It's a LIE that it has always been that way! A LIE!!!

Now I suppose one day the private companies could buy back all their shares and go private so Wall Street couldn't make them KILL THEIR CUSTOMERS ANYMORE BUT....... Until that day comes we should HAVE A CHOICE of what kind of insurance we have. Government run healthcare is superior to private run healthcare because they HAVE NO SHAREHOLDERS TO FEED!

Isn't that SIMPLE! I've yet to hear one single Democrat explain this to the American people. I hope they can override this veto, but I'm not expecting them too. Until we can afford to send the Dems to "short and to the point sentence school" we are going to keep losing!

I'll end this to say to the people that if you don't force your Congress critter to create a GOVERNMENT INSURANCE PROGRAM, the PRIVATE COMPANIES will keep killing you and your families. They will KILL you by denying you and that's A FACT!

Call you're Representative and tell them this....

AS LONG AS THE PRIVATE INSURANCE COMPANIES PUT THEIR SHAREHOLDERS FIRST, I CAN NOT SUPPORT PRIVATE HEALTHCARE COVERAGE. IT DOESN'T WORK! I WANT A CHOICE. I WANT GOVERNMENT HEALTHCARE INSURANCE!

Keeping my fingers crossed!!!!!!!

http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2007/10/roberts-do-not-.html
Roberts: Do not believe myths about SCHIP
Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., wants to bust myths being spread by some opponents of the bill reauthorizing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Here are the facts, Roberts says:
“This bill does not grant SCHIP coverage to children whose families have incomes more than $40,000. In fact, the only way a state can cover children in families at higher income levels is if the administration grants approval for the state to do so. This is already current law, and this bill does not change that. However, this bill for the first time puts tough standards into place to ensure states are truly focusing their programs on low-income children.
“This bill only covers children 18 or younger. This is current law, and this bill does not change that. More important, this bill actually fixes the problem created by this administration, which granted waivers to states to cover adults under this program meant for low-income children.“This bill . . . builds on the current private structure, better allowing states to provide health insurance to children through the private market.”
Roberts’ conclusion: “This is a good bill, and it will provide health insurance to children who would otherwise have no access to health care.”
Rep. Todd Tiahrt, who was the only Kansas House member to vote against the bill, has a commentary on today’s Opinion pages arguing that the expanded program isn’t focused enough on low-income kids. Tiahrt writes: “Unfortunately, the bill the president vetoed expands coverage to adults without covering all of our low-income children, which is why I will vote to sustain his veto.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2007/10/roberts-do-not-.html

We should be so lucky!
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15377334

On Thursday, the House of Representatives is going to try to override the president's veto of a bill that would have expanded a popular children's health insurance program — SCHIP. The override is expected to fail. At a press conference Wednesday, President Bush once again explained his veto.

"I don't like plans that encourage people to move from private medicine to the public, and that's what's happening under this bill," he said.

But a new poll shows that the public supports an expansion of the program — even if it means some people would drop their private health insurance to get the government benefits.

Switch to SCHIP?

Jessica Baron is one of the people who would switch. She has a genetic condition that weakens her connective tissue and has left her with mild hip problems. Her 12-year-old son has the same condition, but his is worse. He has eye problems, weak ankles, knees and hands, and he needs a wheelchair. California has a plan that requires health insurers to offer something to people with pre-existing conditions, so they were able to get Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance policies for about $600 a month. But with co-pays for drugs and doctors, and a $1,500 deductible, their annual costs add up.

"We're looking at a minimum of $12,000," Baron says. "It's probably closer to $15,000 a year, if we include co-pays on medication, and anything we have to do that's preventative."

Baron and her son live in Southern California, where housing costs are high. Their rent and utilities run $24,000 a year. Barron is the executive director of a nonprofit group, Guitars in the Classroom, and makes $32,000 a year. Between rent and health insurance, "We've now overspent my pretax income and I haven't bought groceries yet," Baron says. "That's why my sofa is 11 years old and I'm driving around a falling-apart van with no automatic wheelchair lift."

Barron isn't complaining. She has savings that will last her another year or two. She's hopeful that her nonprofit will begin to do better, and she has the smarts to check out her options. One option was California's SCHIP Program, but she found that with the $8,000 she gets from her ex-husband to help with her son's care, she makes too much to qualify unless the program is expanded, which she hopes it will be.

Baron isn't alone. Analysts expect that some parents would switch their children from regular insurance to an expanded government program because it's available to children with pre-existing conditions, it covers almost everything, and it's cheaper.

Sarah Dufour would also like to make a switch. She and her husband live outside Buffalo, N.Y. They have insurance for their two sons, who are 3 and 6. Dufour doesn't know what her family pays out of pocket each year.

"It's too scary to find out," she says.

Her husband makes about $46,000 a year in an auto-body shop. He pays $89 a week for health insurance; his employer pays another $89. Not everything is covered and there are co-pays, like $250 for hospitalization, and $50 each time her accident-prone sons wind up in the emergency room.

"It does take quite a chunk out," Dufour says. "It's harder to save up for things like vacation. And Christmas time is always hard."

They haven't taken any vacations in the last few years. The family's income is $100 over the current maximum for the New York state plan.

Dufour, a lifelong Republican, supports an SCHIP expansion and says she would sign on if the program were expanded. She says this is one place the government should get involved because somebody needs to do something.

Public Support for SCHIP

SCHIP premiums are often free, or just $5 or $10 or $15 a month.

Economist Linda Blumberg of the Urban Institute says SCHIP makes financial sense for a lot of people.

"A private policy with comparable benefits is going to run in the neighborhood of $12,000 a year. And for a family of four with an income of $52,000 a year, that's almost a quarter of their income."

According to a new poll by NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health, the public strongly supports an expansion of SCHIP even if it means some people would drop their private insurance.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15377334

I guess it is a schip, my daughter pays into it every month for her two children. Certain doctors are on the program, she has had no problem with her coverage, I can't understand what *'s problem is, more kids in this state need to get in it.

was affordable and actually covered medical bills. I remember having a Blue Cross/Blue Shield policy that covered 100% of everything, didn't cost much and the people administering it were nice. That was 20 - 30 years ago and how times have changed. Insurance companies are now money machines and nothing more. The more they can charge the better and the less they cover even better than that. SCHIP is a drop in the bucket. We need universal, single payer coverage for ever American, no questions asked.

http://c-span.org/watch/cs_cspan_wm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS

if repigs vote this down, they are all filthy animals. obstructionists!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

c span taking calls from citizens, one guy just called against SCHIP because it will raise taxes on cigars. Geezzzzzzz, what they hell is wrong with people, are they inhuman??? sickening absolutely sickening. So many out there who are really fucked up.

Why is it called a Children's Health Insurance Program if it covers adults also? Thanks!