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Family Values: Sick Kids? Tough Shit

FRIDAY OCTOBER 5 2007 3:00 PM

Submitted by Bitch_PhD. Edited By Bitch_PhD.

TAGS: schip, state children's health insurance program, bush, health insurance, health care, children

Yesterday Bush, as promised, vetoed the State Child Health Insurance Program bill.

Bush, in only the fourth veto of his presidency, said he rejected the bipartisan bill because it would "move healthcare in this country in the wrong direction" and would mean that "government coverage would displace private health insurance for many children."
....
Rep. Elton Gallegly, a Simi Valley Republican who voted against the bill, said the Democrats' decision to delay the override attempt shows their goal is to score political points, not to provide health insurance to children.

"This is a classic case of the ugliest part of our government process, which is taking something as critical as the healthcare of children and turning it into political spin," Gallegly said.

Ugly, ugly, ugly. Denying health insurance to children because providing it is "the wrong direction" is the "political spin" here. SCHIP wouldn't "displace private insurance" for fucking anyone; it would *provide* insurance for kids who don't have it.

Here's what will happen in California, Gallegly's state:

Unless Congress overrides the veto, California will not only be prohibited from expanding the program, but the state will also have to drop as many as 250,000 children who are currently insured under the program, Wright said.

More facts:

In 2005, there were 8.3 *million* uninsured children in the U.S. In 2006, there were 8.7 million.

Between 1998, the year the State Children�s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) was implemented, and 2004, the number of uninsured children fell every year. But since 2004, as the availability of funding for SCHIP expansion has tightened and as a restrictive Medicaid policy enacted in early 2006 has taken effect, progress in enrolling uninsured children in SCHIP and Medicaid has stalled.

These are children with asthma, with disabilities, with chronic ear infections, with toothaches, with eczema, with allergies; kids in foster care, kids with depression or ADHD. The idea that most people are basically healthy and that if you get sick without health insurance you can always go to the ER applies to "most people" because "most people" have had decent health care as children and haven't developed long-term or chronic problems because they lacked it. Untreated colds, head lice when you can't afford the medicine that kills them, eczema that drives you crazy--that kind of minor ongoing problem undermines kids' ability to attend school, undermines their ability to focus when they are in school, undermines their long-term health and the health of their entire families. ER visits for head lice or asthma are a fuck of a lot more expensive to the almighty taxpayer than providing kids with inhalers and topical medications.

And it's fucking pathetic that we have to resort to that kind of "it costs more not to treat them" argument for convincing the wealthiest country in the world to make sure kids can see a doctor once or twice a year.

The good news is that the Senate has enough votes for SCHIP to override Bush's asshole veto.

The bad news is that the House doesn't. We need 25 more Representatives to act like decent human beings and switch their votes.

So. Do the decent thing. Go here and find out who your representative is.

Then scroll down the list below to see if his or her name is on it. These are the folks who voted against SCHIP.

Write them (you can do so via the first link, or you can google their name and find a real honest-to-god mailing address) and tell them to change their vote. That's all you have to do.

If you want to do more, google the name of your state + "uninsured children numbers" and find out what percentage of kids in your state are uninsured. Mention that in your letter. If your representative was one of the good guys, write to the people on the list below who are from your state, admit that you're not in their district, but tell them you write as a resident of your state, and point out that their vote affects everyone.

If you want to do even more, talk to your friends and make sure they know about this. Tell them who their representative is. Urge them to write or call. Give them your representative's contact information. (A list of people who are *most* likely to change their votes is here, but even the dyed-in-the-wool assholes should hear how unpopular their stubbornness on this issue is with their constituents.)

If you want to do even more than that, print out a few flyers that say "Your Representative in Congress voted AGAINST providing health insurance to uninsured children," put your Representative's name, face, and contact information on it, and post them around town.

If you want to do even more than all of that, think of what else you can do and post it in the comments below.

Alabama

AL-1 Bonner, Jo (R)
AL-2 Everett, Terry (R)
AL-3 Rogers, Michael (R)
AL-4 Aderholt, Robert (R)
AL-6 Bachus, Spencer (R)

Arizona

AZ-2 Franks, Trent (R)
AZ-3 Shadegg, John (R)
AZ-6 Flake, Jeff (R)

Arkansas

AR-3 Boozman, John (R)

California

CA-2 Herger, Walter (R) -- did not vote
CA-3 Lungren, Daniel (R)
CA-4 Doolittle, John (R)
CA-19 Radanovich, George (R)
CA-21 Nunes, Devin (R)
CA-22 McCarthy, Kevin (R)
CA-24 Gallegly, Elton (R)
CA-25 McKeon, Howard (R)
CA-26 Dreier, David (R)
CA-33 Watson, Diane (D) -- voted "present" but did not vote aye or nay on the bill
CA-40 Royce, Edward (R)
CA-41 Lewis, Jerry (R)
CA-42 Miller, Gary (R)
CA-44 Calvert, Ken (R)
CA-46 Rohrabacher, Dana (R)
CA-48 Campbell, John (R)
CA-49 Issa, Darrell (R)
CA-50 Bilbray, Brian (R)
CA-52 Hunter, Duncan (R)

Colorado

CO-4 Musgrave, Marilyn (R)
CO-5 Lamborn, Doug (R)
CO-6 Tancredo, Thomas (R)

Florida

FL-1 Miller, Jeff (R)
FL-4 Crenshaw, Ander (R)
FL-5 Brown-Waite, Virginia (R)
FL-6 Stearns, Clifford (R)
FL-7 Mica, John (R)
FL-8 Keller, Ric (R)
FL-9 Bilirakis, Gus (R)
FL-11 Castor, Kathy (D)
FL-12 Putnam, Adam (R)
FL-14 Mack, Connie (R)
FL-15 Weldon, David (R)
FL-18 Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana (R)
FL-21 Diaz-Balart, Lincoln (R)
FL-24 Feeney, Tom (R)
FL-25 Diaz-Balart, Mario (R)

Georgia

GA-1 Kingston, Jack (R)
GA-3 Westmoreland, Lynn (R)
GA-6 Price, Tom (R)
GA-7 Linder, John (R)
GA-8 Marshall, James (D)
GA-9 Deal, Nathan (R)
GA-10 Broun, Paul (R)
GA-11 Gingrey, John (R)

Idaho

ID-1 Sali, Bill (R)

Illinois

IL-6 Roskam, Peter (R)
IL-11 Weller, Gerald (R)
IL-13 Biggert, Judy (R)
IL-14 Hastert, J. (R)
IL-15 Johnson, Timothy (R)
IL-16 Manzullo, Donald (R)
IL-19 Shimkus, John (R)

Indiana

IN-3 Souder, Mark (R)
IN-4 Buyer, Stephen (R)
IN-5 Burton, Dan (R)
IN-6 Pence, Mike (R)
IN-7 Carson, Julia (D) -- did not vote
IN-9 Hill, Baron (D)

Iowa

IA-5 King, Steve (R)

Kansas

KS-4 Tiahrt, Todd (R)

Kentucky

KY-1 Whitfield, Edward (R)
KY-2 Lewis, Ron (R)
KY-4 Davis, Geoff (R)
KY-5 Rogers, Harold (R)

Louisiana

LA-1 Jindal, Bobby (R) -- did not vote
LA-4 McCrery, James (R)
LA-5 Alexander, Rodney (R)
LA-6 Baker, Richard (R)
LA-7 Boustany, Charles (R)

Maryland

MD-6 Bartlett, Roscoe (R)

Massachusetts

MA-10 Delahunt, William (D) -- did not vote

Michigan

MI-2 Hoekstra, Peter (R)
MI-4 Camp, David (R)
MI-7 Walberg, Timothy (R)
MI-8 Rogers, Michael (R)
MI-9 Knollenberg, Joseph (R)
MI-11 McCotter, Thaddeus (R)

Minnesota

MN-2 Kline, John (R)
MN-6 Bachmann, Michele (R)

Mississippi

MS-1 Wicker, Roger (R)
MS-3 Pickering, Charles (R)
MS-4 Taylor, Gene (D)

Missouri

MO-2 Akin, W. (R)
MO-6 Graves, Samuel (R)
MO-7 Blunt, Roy (R)
MO-9 Hulshof, Kenny (R)

Nebraska

NE-1 Fortenberry, Jeffrey (R)
NE-2 Terry, Lee (R)
NE-3 Smith, Adrian (R)

Nevada

NV-2 Heller, Dean (R)

New Jersey

NJ-3 Saxton, H. (R)
NJ-5 Garrett, E. (R)
NJ-11 Frelinghuysen, Rodney (R)

New Mexico

NM-2 Pearce, Steven (R)

New York

NY-26 Reynolds, Thomas (R)
NY-29 Kuhl, John (R)

North Carolina

NC-2 Etheridge, Bob (D)
NC-3 Jones, Walter (R)
NC-5 Foxx, Virginia (R)
NC-6 Coble, Howard (R)
NC-7 McIntyre, Mike (D)
NC-8 Hayes, Robin (R)
NC-9 Myrick, Sue (R)
NC-10 Mchenry, Patrick (R)

Ohio

OH-1 Chabot, Steven (R)
OH-2 Schmidt, Jean (R)
OH-4 Jordan, Jim (R)
OH-8 Boehner, John (R)
OH-10 Kucinich, Dennis (D) -- WTF?

Oklahoma

OK-1 Sullivan, John (R)
OK-2 Boren, Dan (D)
OK-3 Lucas, Frank (R)
OK-4 Cole, Tom (R)
OK-5 Fallin, Mary (R)

Oregon

OR-2 Walden, Greg (R)

Pennsylvania

PA-5 Peterson, John (R)
PA-9 Shuster, William (R)
PA-16 Pitts, Joseph (R)

South Carolina

SC-1 Brown, Henry (R)
SC-2 Wilson, Addison (R)
SC-3 Barrett, James (R)
SC-4 Inglis, Bob (R)

Tennessee

TN-1 Davis, David (R)
TN-2 Duncan, John (R)
TN-3 Wamp, Zach (R)
TN-7 Blackburn, Marsha (R)

Texas

TX-1 Gohmert, Louis (R)
TX-2 Poe, Ted (R) -- did not vote
TX-3 Johnson, Samuel (R)
TX-4 Hall, Ralph (R)
TX-5 Hensarling, Jeb (R)
TX-6 Barton, Joe (R)
TX-7 Culberson, John (R)
TX-8 Brady, Kevin (R)
TX-10 McCaul, Michael (R)
TX-11 Conaway, K. (R)
TX-12 Granger, Kay (R)
TX-13 Thornberry, William (R)
TX-14 Paul, Ronald (R)
TX-19 Neugebauer, Randy (R)
TX-21 Smith, Lamar (R)
TX-24 Marchant, Kenny (R)
TX-26 Burgess, Michael (R)
TX-30 Johnson, Eddie (D) -- did not vote
TX-31 Carter, John (R)
TX-32 Sessions, Peter (R)

Utah

UT-1 Bishop, Rob (R)
UT-3 Cannon, Christopher (R)

Virginia

VA-1 Davis, Jo Ann (R)
VA-2 Drake, Thelma (R)
VA-4 Forbes, James (R)
VA-5 Goode, Virgil (R)
VA-6 Goodlatte, Robert (R)
VA-7 Cantor, Eric (R)

Washington

WA-4 Hastings, Doc (R)

Wisconsin

WI-1 Ryan, Paul (R)
WI-5 Sensenbrenner, F. (R)

Wyoming

WY-0 Cubin, Barbara (R) -- did not vote

107 Comments

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Reaver

Sneads Ferry, NC

August 2003

OCT 06, 2007 07:01 AM

Speaking of spin, did everyone miss Bush explaining his decision on CNN. Which was based on the fact that the Democrats tried to sneak 'adults, and families who make up to 83,000 dollars a year' into the Bill?

Evidently, to Democrats compromise means 'adding shit that you know will get it veto-ed to a bill, and then demonizing everyone because you can't do what you are asked to do'.

Man, I wish I was an illegal immigrant they get some cheap health care.

Keri

SUICIDEGIRL

Virginia, USA

OCT 06, 2007 07:04 AM

fanboy37 said:
If someone can explain to me why I should have to pay for everyone else' kids health coverage through my tax dollars........I'll agree that the veto was a bad Idea...

the way I see it, this actually the first good thing Bush has done in a long time.

because with the responsability of being an adult and a u.s citizen comes the responsability of taking care of it's children. i don't give a fuck if they're your children or not. what harm can come from taking a few dollars out of your paycheck (that you probably would end up spending on lap dances or video games) to help children who need it? preventative care is ulitmately cheaper than numerous expensive hospital visits, which are a fucking joke to begin with. in my opinion, people like you are what's ruining our country. get over your self.

Subrosa

San Francisco, CA

July 2004

OCT 06, 2007 07:06 AM

Reaver said:
Speaking of spin, did everyone miss Bush explaining his decision on CNN. Which was based on the fact that the Democrats tried to sneak 'adults, and families who make up to 83,000 dollars a year' into the Bill?

Evidently, to Democrats compromise means 'adding shit that you know will get it veto-ed to a bill, and then demonizing everyone because you can't do what you are asked to do'.

Man, I wish I was an illegal immigrant they get some cheap health care.

Oh for the love of GOD. Even your own side says Bush is lying about that. It's false, no one who knows anything about this bill believes it, and it's just trotted out there to defend the indefensible with full knowledge of its falsity.

Keri

SUICIDEGIRL

Virginia, USA

OCT 06, 2007 07:11 AM

emotedcreations said:
I mean, I can understand, although I don't agree with, the notion that people need to work and pay for their own health insurance.

i can't understand that at all. i think the government should take sole responsability in caring for it's people. that's why we pay fucking taxes. maybe if we took away the limos, fancy suits, family vacations, and golf clubs, that money alone could care for our children. fuck it could probably care for our adults too.

Heathen_Dave

Birmingham, AL

July 2005

OCT 06, 2007 07:21 AM

Keri said:

emotedcreations said:
I mean, I can understand, although I don't agree with, the notion that people need to work and pay for their own health insurance.

People who buy limos, fancy suits, family vacations, and golf clubs would not work quite so hard if they knew they would not get limos, fancy suits, family vacations, and golf clubs as a reward for their work.

Morgan

SUICIDEGIRL

Georgia, USA

OCT 06, 2007 08:06 AM

Ah, looks like this may devolve into yet another thread full of douchebags unwilling to sacrifice 40 cents a paycheck to help their fellow Americans.

Great.

attn_Hussein_ho

Brooklyn, NY

February 2004

OCT 06, 2007 09:32 AM

Morgan said:
Ah, looks like this may devolve into yet another thread full of douchebags unwilling to sacrifice 40 cents a paycheck to help their fellow Americans.

Great.

sure, its 40 cents now. but then its more money, and then more money, and then time and money, until its a full blown class war.

wait, that sounds kind of cool actually.

Virtute

Brooklyn, NY

July 2007

OCT 06, 2007 09:42 AM

Subrosa said:

Necia said:
I'm slightly sad that the only Minnesota representatives who voted against it are Kline and Bachmann. I mean, I'm 99% happy, because it was only those two, but I'm also a little sad, because there ain't shit to do about Bachmann--she's batshit insane in every circumstance--and I'm not sure there's much one can do about Kline, either.

She's that chick who molested Bush after his State of the Union speech, right?

And a baby farmer!

fanboy37

Quantico, VA

October 2006

OCT 06, 2007 09:44 AM

Keri Said:
because with the responsability of being an adult and a u.s citizen comes the responsability of taking care of it's children. i don't give a fuck if they're your children or not. what harm can come from taking a few dollars out of your paycheck (that you probably would end up spending on lap dances or video games) to help children who need it? preventative care is ulitmately cheaper than numerous expensive hospital visits, which are a fucking joke to begin with. in my opinion, people like you are what's ruining our country. get over your self.

Wow. Thanks, this has totally changed my world view, insulting me was definitely the way to go if you were trying to influence my way of thinking.

Yeah....the thing is, they're not my children...I have no children of my own, I don't want any right now, someday perhaps, but not right now. I guess I'm a hero since my spending a few dollars on condoms saves us all thousands later in health care costs.

"Video games and lap dances" So what if I did? What if I wanted to spend every dime I make on playing video games while getting lap dances? Who cares really? The principle is that it's my money, I should have the freedom to spend in such a way if I really wanted to. Just like the people who have chosen to have children and raise families have the right to do so. The problem is that no one wants to be responsible for supporting their own lifestyle choices, everyone wants the government to subsidize their lives, paying for it through taxes.

Hey you're right though, I really am ruining the country. Every morning when I wake up and put on the uniform I wear, I'm tearing it down piece by piece. Yeah...I don't really see how that works.

Heathen_Dave

Birmingham, AL

July 2005

OCT 06, 2007 09:52 AM

Morgan said:
Ah, looks like this may devolve into yet another thread full of douchebags unwilling to sacrifice 40 cents a paycheck to help their fellow Americans.

Great.

They can have my 40 cents so long as they promise to wear a condom next time; I don't at all appreciate the "I had a baby, he's your responsibility now," mentality, which is exactly what this is.

However, this is one of the few programs I really don't have much trouble supporting, but there are loopholes in it I do not like at all.

attn_Hussein_ho

Brooklyn, NY

February 2004

OCT 06, 2007 09:59 AM

fanboy37 said:

this is america, the greatest country in the world. love it, including its underinsured youth, or leave it.

Necia

San Francisco, CA

August 2005

OCT 06, 2007 10:12 AM

Subrosa said:

She's that chick who molested Bush after his State of the Union speech, right?

Molestation? You be the judge!

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

Margot_Dent

Los Angeles, CA

February 2004

OCT 06, 2007 11:59 AM

fanboy37 said:

even though numerous people have pointed how how providing preventative care is cheaper to the taxpayer than the alternative, i honestly cannot comprehend how someone would not be willing to "sacrifice" an unnoticeable amount of money to help sick children. i really just don't get it.

mamet

Charleston, SC

March 2005

OCT 06, 2007 01:41 PM

Margot_Dent said:
even though numerous people have pointed how how providing preventative care is cheaper to the taxpayer than the alternative, i honestly cannot comprehend how someone would not be willing to "sacrifice" an unnoticeable amount of money to help sick children. i really just don't get it.

It's because you're not a horrible person.

freshprncebelair

Ellicott City, MD

June 2004

OCT 06, 2007 03:37 PM

Heathen_Dave said:

Keri said:

emotedcreations said:
I mean, I can understand, although I don't agree with, the notion that people need to work and pay for their own health insurance.

Additionally, if you took away such rewards, you also might find that healthcare gets more expensive due to the fact that people might not be as willing to go 300k in debt to finish med school and become doctors.

Basically, the problem is essentially that healthcare has become an arms race type situation, and this has driven the cost up amazingly out of reach of more and more people. Why would a doctor want to work for peanuts in General Practice, when they can earn three times as much as a specialist treating very specific stuff? In countries with social health programs, the wage differential is much lower, and thus you have rational health costs because much of the arms race is dismantled, but also, you don't get a lot of exotic and cutting edge treatments either.

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