Pet Insurance for ALL Children!
August 13, 2007 by Diva Jood
SCHIP, or the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, is a state-and-federal program that successfully provides medical insurance to children whose families cannot afford insurance, and who do not qualify for other programs, such as Medicaid. But the program is in trouble. The AMA is worried that the Senate may move to strip the Medicare physician reimbursement increase out of the children’s health legislation and dubs the negotiations in both Houses as “contentious.” Just before leaving for their August recess, Congress passed a measure that would prevent Medicare physician pay cuts for the next two years; the next day, the Senate passed Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007 which did nothing to change physicians Medicare payments. Because the bills are substantially different, when Congress reconvenes in September a committee will attempt to work out a compromise to save SCHIP before it automatically expires Sept. 30th.
But the program remains in serious jeporady. In his infinate lack of wisdom, President Bush threatens to veto ANY legislation he’s sent:
“The program is going beyond the initial intent of helping poor children. It’s now aimed at encouraging more people to get on government health care. That’s what that is. It’s a way to encourage people to transfer from the private sector to government health-care plans.”
Yeah, THAT’s the ticket. Pesky government health-care plans sounds like (gasp) Socialized Medicine.
“(The program) has a solid track record of working to get kids covered and that’s important because kids who don’t have health care coverage are less likely to see a doctor,” said Elaine Arkin, communications director for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Vincent DeMarco, of the Maryland Citizens’ Health Initiative, an advocacy and lobbying group based in Baltimore, says that SCHIP is, in his opinion, one of the most successful government programs ever.
Barbara Ehrenreich suggests a solution:
Open up pet health insurance to all American children now!
This year, Americans will spend about $9.8 billion on health care for their pets, up from $7.2 billion five years ago. According to the New York Times, New York’s leading pet hospitals offer CT scans, MRI’s, dialysis units, and even a rehab clinic featuring an underwater treadmill, perhaps for the amphibians in one’s household. A professor who consults to pet health facilities on communication issues justified these huge investments in pet health to me by pointing out that pets are, after all, “part of the family.”
Well, kids are part of the family, too, and can do almost as many tricks as your dog! And they snuggle as well as your cat. So, why not? Pet insurance is not very expensive, around $33 per month. Of course, Ms. Ehrenreich refers to an article by the NY Times’ Bob Herbert from June of this year. In the article, Mr. Herbert wrote about Diamonte Driver, a 12-year old boy who died recently from an abscessed tooth because he had no insurance and his mother could not afford $80 to have the tooth pulled. And he also wrote about 14-year old Devante Johnson, who died when his health insurance ran out in the middle of treatment for kidney cancer. Both these kids could have been treated by a Veterinarian. Instead, their lives were cut short for lack of insurance, for lack of $80.
We can, we must, do better. Shame on you, Mr. Bush, shame on you.
cross posted at Journeys With Jood
Sphere: Related Content
This is so disturbing….and upsetting…what the hell..
I saw Bush give that speech in Ohio, and he said that the whole problem is that “poor people don’t know how to buy health insurance or save for it”.
He is CLUELESS and Ignorant….and it will effect millions of young lives….I am so sick of how ordinary people are treated in this country….
E4E, he’s clueless, ignorant, and ARROGANT. Dangerous combination.
That family is so rich they haven’t got a clue. They don’t care anyway…as Ma Babs has shown us many a time. As long as they have what they want…others don’t matter. They figure we can eat stale bread and they’ll eat the cake. Well…I hope they freakin’ choke on it…go brain dead…and have to be on life support forever…with a feeding tube…morons!
Diva Jood~ thank you! You have said what I have often thought but for fear of animal lovers keep quite~WTF??? Children in real need and critters getting MRI”s? ABC has a video about pets getting implants! Do not take me wrong ~save your pets ~ but when kids are seen as worthless somebody priorities are whacked. Steps back for the whipping I am bound to get about pets…grin
Sumo, Bush WANTED to say “That’s it. Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans, no more merciful beheadings, and call off Christmas.” His staff writers thought that was a bad idea, so they came up with “The program is going beyond the initial intent of helping poor children. It’s now aimed at encouraging more people to get on government health care. That’s what that is. It’s a way to encourage people to transfer from the private sector to government health-care plans.”
Sagefever, when I had my dog, I had insurance for her - and I am not opposed to it. However, it is a luxury item. Healthcare for all US Citizens should NOT be a luxury; it should be available to all of us, at the same level for each person. Children should not die needlessly because of an $80 tooth extraction.
The whole Bush clan is out of touch with reality and the people!
S-Q, completely out of touch! When 41 was President, I was aware that he was completely amoral - which is quite different than Nixon, who was immoral. George H. W. Bush had no moral code at all, he followed what he felt was expedient. His son, W, has no code at all - it’s worse still.
They exhaust me.
Great post, Diva. E4E, I’m glad I missed that stupid Ohio speech (I no longer bother to watch what the arrogant moron cowboy thinks worth addressing in his speeches.) Good thingm because that one would have driven me around the bend!
It’s become a standard meme in this Administration to blame the poor for their predicaments–they don’t know how to save & buy their own health insurance! Right~ meanwhile, the far right has done everything in its power to make unions irrelevant, all the jobs that are left pay min wage with no benefits (retail or service), & the friendly American government continues to downsize social programs until they’re effectively strangled & can be “drowned in the bathtub.”
Yet we have megabucks to bestow elsewhere, like militarization & tax cuts & subsidies for the rich. It’s a matter of priorities.
When are these a**** holes going to realize that government is about the citizenry as a WHOLE, not the uber-wealthy’s donmination of the economy. It’s the age of the robber barons all over again. The cannibals take what they want & leave the rest of us to fight to the death over the scraps.
“Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it,” as we’ve seen all to recently in the close brush with a major market meltdown & another Depression. But Republicons don’t like regulations & laws standing in the way of their profits!
Demon Princess, the far right’s tactic is to marginalize everyone who is not like them - hence, they bust Unions; blame the victims; patronize everyone as though we were all children who just don’t know any better. They will NEVER see government as being for or about the entire citizenry. Why? Because we live in a Regency, rather than a Democracy or Republic. It is the Monarchy of King Dick, the puppetmaster behind King George.
And so the rich get richer; the poor get poorer; and the middle class shrinks as it becomes poorer too.