We Can't Ignore Children's Health-Care Needs
Opinion Piece by Congressman Joe Courtney
We have a moral obligation to provide Eastern Connecticut's children, and those throughout the United States, with access to heath care. This cause should be one of our nation's top priorities, but sadly the White House does not seem to share the same values.
Congress recently sent President Bush a comprehensive five-year reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, more commonly known as HUSKY B in Connecticut. Instead of embracing the will of Congress and the American people, the president inexplicably vetoed the bill. He chose to deny millions of children access to doctors, rather than supporting their welfare and well-being.
President Bush is wrong. The fight he is waging on America's low-income children and working families is based in personal ideology, not reality. On a late Friday night in August, the administration sent a letter to all 50 states announcing unilateral changes to the rules for the SCHIP program. The president's proposed changes would immediately cut approximately 5,000 Connecticut's children from HUSKY B. Those unfortunate victims of an irresponsible White House policy change would join nearly 74,000 uninsured children in Connecticut.
Forty-three governors across the United States, including Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell, support a robust SCHIP program and support the Congress' efforts. However, the White House refuses to embrace this carefully crafted, bipartisan measure that boosts funding by $35 billion for the next five years and adds 4 million more low-income children to the already 6.6 million children enrolled.
Elected officials aren't alone in supporting this legislation. More than 300 organizations, including the American Medical Association, AARP and the Catholic Hospital Association, support this reauthorization.
Congress is keeping its pledge to make this investment in accordance with "pay-as-you-go" rules so there is no additional federal spending added to the budget. This is good news to the American taxpayer and should have been welcomed by President Bush.
Children are the least expensive population to cover because much of their health-care costs are related to preventive care, rather than treatment for debilitating and chronic illnesses. This has the added bonus of creating long-term savings for our health-care system by introducing a healthier population into the mix.
We have an opportunity in front of us to give 10 million children in America access to the health care they desperately need and deserve for a healthy start to their lives. Instead, the president's priorities continue to be spending $10 billion per month in Baghdad to continue a failed Iraq policy, rather than a fraction of that cost to give children in Connecticut medical coverage.
But this is not necessarily a new fight the president has waged against America's low- to mid-income families. Families and students struggling to afford a college education saw critical Pell Grant funding essentially frozen from 2002 through 2006, while at the same time they were forced to pay increased student loan rates. For a White House that has argued the United States must be more globally competitive, that policy is just plain backward. We need more young adults to have access to an affordable education, not fewer.
It took a new majority with a greater vision toward the future to increase student aid programs, cut student loan interest rates in half and offer student loan forgiveness to those qualified students who choose a career in public service for 10 years after graduation without any additional tax burden on the American public.
And now, with that same look to the future, the Democratic majority is once again fighting for our most vulnerable citizens, our children, who have been grossly ignored by this administration.
Thursday, I will vote to override the president's veto, and I will urge my Republican colleagues to stand with me in a bipartisan effort to protect our children. The Democratic majority needs only a handful of visionaries from the Republican minority, who are willing to buck their party's leadership that has treated millions of children across the nation as political pawns.
I promise to continue advocating for Connecticut's children because the choice is really a simple one -- will we care for America's most vulnerable citizens, or ignore them? I will not ignore their needs.
Norwich Bulletin, 10/17/07
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