It was supposed to be a no-lose issue for the Congressional
Democrats. Expansion of SCHIP, the State Children’s Health
Insurance Program, to cover more poor kids, would put them on the
side of the angels and, with its flaws masked, throw the
Republicans on the defensive.
It worked — for awhile. The pollsters asked the people, Should
health care coverage of poor children be expanded? Of course, they
said. The Democrats trotted out their hoary talking point about the
Republicans wanting to throw poor children out in the snow (or
wherever they throw children because they always do).
President Bush vetoed the bill. Send me a corrected bill, he
said. No, we’ll override it to show the public that we are on the
right side, the Democrats said. They made a few minor adjustments
to the bill, couldn’t budge any more Congressional Republican
votes. Result: the veto override effort failed.
The secret here is that the Democrats — always trying to plan
two jumps ahead — wanted it to fail.
They are convinced that it is a surefire issue for them, come
November 2008. They don’t care as much about children as about
winning the next election. They figure they can hang the blame for
“hurting children” on the Republicans, win veto-proof majorities in
Congress in ‘08 and/or
the White House. Then, they will move toward their real goal:
nationalized, government-run health care for all.
The SCHIP bill was intended to be the camel’s nose under the
health care tent. SCHIP was actually created by a Republican
Congress in 1997 to cover poor children, period. The major flaw in
the bill is that it would expand coverage to approximately two
million children who are already privately insured. Children in
families of four with annual incomes of twice the poverty level
(approximately $40,000) are currently eligible for SCHIP. This
would be raised to include families making three times the poverty
level, or $61.900. This is well above the median U.S. household
income ($48,201, according to the Census Bureau). Thus, it would
move SCHIP coverage well into the middle class.
This, indeed, is the camel shoving its nose well into the tent.
“Fee” government health insurance? If you and your family already
have private coverage and make $61,900 a year, would you drop it
for the “free” coverage? Of course. So, this year it’s $61,900;
next year $80,00, and so forth.
With expanded SCHIPs in place, the Democrats will have the
middle class bracketed: seniors under Medicare; children under
SCHIPs. The next step would be easy — and both ruinously expensive
and inefficient in a country with a Congress that does not know how
to face the train wreck heading toward Medicare and Social
Security.
The Republicans have begun to pound on the real reason behind
the expansion of SCHIP. It will take a lot more pounding on the
down-range cost of expanded “free” care. At the same time, they
need to remind one and all of what we’ll get at the end of the
road: a health care system as clotted as those of Canada and
Britain.
In short, they need to make sure the camel gets a steady
nosebleed.
