Investing in Our Future, Our Children
Caroline Lee, KRC Health Access Director
A nine year old child cannot communicate the simplest words, “mom” and “dad”. Without the Healthy Families Program, a state-run public health benefit, this child would not have been able to receive vital treatment needed to help him live a normal childhood. The recent veto on the proposed SCHIP funding bill in Washington DC obstructs working class families from obtaining basic health services.
SCHIP was created in 1997 to help reduce the increasing number of children with no health care coverage. These are children from hard-working families, many with full-time jobs but can only pay for food and housing. It is tragic that families have to choose between being able to see a doctor and their next meal.
President Bush has approved the last year’s budget amount for SCHIP, but it will not be enough to provide for currently enrolled children. Due to the increase in enrollment in 2007, some states will be forced to disenroll or waitlist children. Congress proposed a $60 billion increase over the next five years in SCHIP funding to support an expansion of eligible families in state programs like Healthy Families to cover approximately 10 million uninsured children.
President Bush stated his main reason for vetoing the proposal was the cost factors. Yet, he requested Congress to budget $200 billion dollars this year to fund the war in Iraq. So, if we were to stop the war in Iraq for 2 months, we would have enough money to cover eligible children for the next 5 years. Where are our investment priorities? Who are we protecting with our tax money?
Let us take a brief look on what will happen if Bush got his way with the budget. Based on an analysis performed by Peter Harbage, here is the realistic fate of children currently enrolled in Healthy Families Program in California under the $5 billion budget proposed by Bush 260 children would need to be disenrolled immediately 11/1; 430,000 children would need to be disenrolled by 1/1/08; and, by 7/1/2008 Healthy Families would shut down and disenroll all 830,000 children.
We need to take action as a community. The lives of more than 830,000 children are at stake and we need to contact our congressional representative to make sure they understand the importance of SCHIP program to Healthy Families.
Let us not repeat Bush’s attitude, “I’ve got mine, you worry about yours”. Let us remind Washington D.C. that health is a basic human right and not a privilege.
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