It’s good that Democratic leaders are finally getting serious about attracting more Republican support for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. After rushing another vote on the SCHIP bill last week, Democrats are now talking with key Republicans about how to reach the two-thirds majority needed to override what’s likely to be another misguided veto by President Bush.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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31 Comments
There are several Repubs in Congress that want to get re-elected so they must be careful about being drug down by Bush. A vote for the kids might get these clowns re-elected.
The excuses used by the NO voters have been addressed — income levels for eligibility are tightened, no illegals will be covered and adults will be removed from coverage quicker. What other than not wanting to see the Democratic Party have any victory will they be able to use as an excuse for a NO vote? I’m certainly wondering what tankerless todd will use for his new excuse to walk lock step with bushco.
America is paying closer attention. I’ll give bushco the credit for that – they’ve made everything such a mess its gotten the attention of many who had their heads buried.
BUSHCO — the greatest ambassador the Democratic Party could ever have!
There are many repubs that think the bill before the congress is the wrong bill. Until the dems make some changes the bill won’t pass. Let the 11% approval rated congress just keep plugging along and getting it wrong. Lots of changes in the next election. Maybe it is time for a new ‘Contract With America’. If the dems are real they will lead the charge this time.
Linda where are you finding these details for the new bill? I am interested in reading them. We dems are making the same mistakes the repubs did. Ignoring the expressed opinions of the general public. Time to wake up and smell the coffee. Listen to the message your constituents are sending you.
I would think the Republicans would be celebrating and announcing to the rooftops that the newest latest version of SCHIP has been changed according to their terms.
Income levels tightened.
No illegals covered.
Adults will be dropped more quickly.
It’s everything and ALL that was complained about! It was changed quickly. They won! Why are they not celebrating that they got their way? Because they really don’t want to give to anyone but the haves and the have mores. Those other words were just their excuses and now that they have been removed they have NOTHING.
Here’s a place to read up on the changes made — the ones the Republicans should be celebrating and announcing victory about. They won! Now let’s get on with doing what’s right for our children. All the Republicans ever wanted was victory; all the Democrats ever wanted was to help Americans.
http://www.cbpp.org/10-25-07health.htm
linda
Show me an actual child that did not qualify for SCHIP this year, who would qualify under your “new, improved” bill.
I want to see a kid with one car or less in the family, $50,000 or less in family income, no big screen TV plugged into cable or STV — who would be helped by this bill next year, who could not qualify this year!
The purpose of SCHIP is to take over the private insurance industry and creat more government dependants.
The purpose of this program is to buy votes for the Democrats.
We have Welfare.
We have Medicaid.
We also HAVE SCHIP, NOW!
This is a new middle class entitlement designed to buy votes for the Democrat Party.
Policy wise, it is a “solution” in search of a problem.
We don’t really need it.
^^ is a democrat? hehehehehheheheh.
Six impossible things before breakfast.
Fred? Is that you?
“There are several Repubs in Congress that want to get re-elected so they must be careful about being drug down by Bush. A vote for the kids might get these clowns re-elected.”
You must have been thinking of bush’s senator, patsy roberts.
Here you go Econ – how about my best friend’s family? Two children, household income less than $50G with BOTH parents working outside the home, no cable, no cell phones, only a landline, no internet, they rent their home because they can’t afford to buy- they shop at Aldi’s for pretty much all of their groceries, the kids only get new school clothes IF they get them as birthday gifts because the cost of school supplies alone is as much as their parents can afford, and they DON’T qualify this year….
Hey, in fact, now that you mention it, my son, who does not currently qualify for health care assistance this year (or last year for that matter) would qualify under the new guidelines – my income is SIGNIFICANTLY less than $50G, I have only one car, no cable, no internet, no excesses…
Econ,
Why?
Isn’t your mind made up?
Why can’t you celebrate your victory? Isn’t this wonderful that the Republicans won? Isn’t that what’s really important – the Republicans win or at least deny the Democratic Party any victory?
I can’t think of any examples I could offer that would mean anything to you. Aren’t you superior to me and my thinking? That’s the way you’ve always represented it to be.
Anon
First:
Health insurance is designed to protect WEALTH.
Health insurance is not designed to protect HEALTH.
With that in mind, and taking your 2 cases, stated above, at your word, I would suggest that they both apply for the existing program.
If they do not qualify, under the existing program, or any other government program, ask them if they would prefer to pay a “tax” or a “premium” of, say, $100.00 a month, per person, for health care coverage.
Simple logic here: If they are not qualified under the existing SCHIPS program, if they are not qualified for Medicaid or Medicare (disabled under 65 are also qualified under Medicare, in many cases) — then they probably are not qualified for a “premium free” plan.
Therefore, “There aint no such thing as a free lunch” — they will pay, in the form of a direct premium, or increased payroll taxes.
Ask if they want to “insure” their financial assets against medical bill collectors for the price of, say $100.00 per person.
Then tell them that thier home, personal property and vehicles are not attachable by bankruptcy court or creditors.
Then ask them if they want to “insure” the mutual funds, CD’s, money market accounts, business property and other assets they obviously do not, yet, own, for the tune of $100.00 per month, per person.
I am curious as to the answer you might get.
Actually, they have already answered.
They answered by declining to buy private insurance, in the current market.—-Again, those over 65, or those under 65 and on SS Disability, have Medicare. Medicare B costs, currently $93.50 per person, but the taxpayer subsidy towards each person on Both Part A and Part B is about $800.00 per month.
The poor do not have to pay the Part B premium.
Also, many of the poor have Medicaid.
Also, many already qualify for SCHIP.—–Ask these people if they want a mandated TAX, taking away their option to not buy insurance. That insurance will cover and protect them from financial loss of assets they don’t even own.
Schip was created in 1997. At a time when Republicans controlled congress, so it would seem that republicans use government to create welfare programs as democrats, Medicare plan D happened under republicans also. So my question is do we even need Schip? doesn’t medicaid already cover the poor? It would smarter on the governments part to find ways to lower health care costs. Allowing people to buy drugs from Canada, tort reform, the Feds respecting states that have medical marijuana laws would be a start.
I’m curious if there is any info regarding the effect uninsured persons use of emergency rooms, etc., is effecting Health Insurance costs and increases?
gster – I don’t have any current data but it is my understanding that it is significant. ER is the most expensive place in the world for treatment.
linda – “Econ,
Why?
Isn’t your mind made up?
Why can’t you celebrate your victory?”
Paulie is afraid than enough Republics will split from Bush to override. Remember, he prenaturely celebrated Bob-Bob’s re-election victory … OOPS!
Thanks Ben – That was my impression also, I just didn’t have a “feel” for the numbers associated with the problem.
Here’s Bush’s answer to the SCHIPS bill:
“Bush suggested that his health care proposals, such as expanding individually owned health savings accounts and allowing small businesses to pool the purchase of health care across state lines, are the better approach.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071031/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_21;_ylt=Ata6ejwKgqYIPeGTuWdmN_AL1vAI
Private savings accounts seem to be his answer for everything.
Rox
Actually, “trading dollars” is all you are doing in several types of insurance.
The only reason Dental Insurance, for instance, makes much sense is that employers can usually deduct the expense of the insurance premium, without paying employment taxes on the money, and likewise, the employee can receive the benefit tax free.
HSA’s or Health Savings Accounts, allow the individual to do that on his or her own.
True “Insurance” uses the “law of large numbers” — getting many people to contribute to a plan that only a few of them will really need.
Insurance works best with relatively large numbers of people, with a predictable number of them experiencing a large expense each year.
It should be a “good thing” if you don’t get your “money’s worth” out of an insurance policy.
It means that nothing really bad happened.
Because of the tax issues, however, we get back to “trading dollars”.
We have allowed our “insurance” to become a “middle man” for little more than tax reasons, in most cases, for smaller, routine expenses.
I rarely come across an individual “dental plan” for instance, that is really worth the premium, especially since the cost or premium is rarely tax deductable to individuals who buy the policy.
Again, insurance works best if the policy covers LARGE risks, spreading that risk over a large pool of people.
Office visits, routine checkups and the like, ought to be paid for out-of-pocket.
If you make the insurance policy pay for routine, small expenses, you can pretty much add the cost of actual visits and routine maintenence costs to the policy cost and guess what the premium will be.
We have allowed this to happen due to the tax issues.
Health Savings Accounts allow us to seperate out the “catastrophic” coverage, or the REAL insurance, from the “dollar trading” or tax motivated dollar-trading.
I’ve been retired for a few years and in that time much has changed, possibly health savings accounts.
Does the money put into a health savings account (tax-free money) still need to be spent or forfeited inside each tax year? If so, only those predictable expenses, routine check ups, dental cleanings, eye glasses, maintenance medications, any known in advance medical expenses would be what the person would count on and put money aside to cover.
The capastrophic expenses we all hope don’t happen and can’t be predicted. Therefore, monies for the unplanned wouldn’t be put into a health savings plan.
Unless things have changed in the last few years you would lose any money you didn’t spend. Forfeiting unspent money would surely negate any tax savings.
LindaYou are probably talking about an MSA or Medical Savings Account.Yes, you would forfeit your money at the end of the year, in those accounts, if not used.
HSA money, however, can be rolled over and over until retirement. There is never any mandate to “use it or lose it.”
The HSA money is tax free, on distribution, if used for nearly any medical need, including Long Term Care.
HSA plans routinely allow people to go with deductables as high as $5000.00 on their “base” policy.
That is what I did.
It does help keep insurance premiums much lower.
If I lowered my deductable by $4,000.00, my premium would go up by pretty much the same amount.
I would rather go with an HSA, pay for those expenses, tax free, if they happen, and KEEP my money, if those smaller expenses dont happen.
Thank you. Guess among those things that have changed I need to add MY MEMORY. I’ll try harder NOT to talk on subjects I don’t know about and should only listen so maybe I’ll learn. ;-)
YWHey, dont feel bad, I work with this stuff every day and I can’t always keep up with the changes!
YWHey, dont feel bad, I work with this stuff every day and I can’t always keep up with the changes!
Five Facts Democrats Don’t Want Americans To Know About Their SCHIP Bill1. Congress’ children’s health insurance bill covers adults through FY 2012. New enrollment of parents under the existing waiver eligibility standards is permitted until the end of FY 2012 – meaning Federal funding will still be available for coverage of these adults until the end of FY 2012.2. Congress’ SCHIP bill covers childless adults through FY 2009. Any state with an existing childless adult waiver that expires before October 1, 2008, will get an automatic extension of the waiver upon request through September 30, 2009. The bill allows new enrollment of childless adults in FY 2008 and funding of childless adults through FY 2009.3. Congress’ SCHIP bill does NOT cover poor children first. The legislation explicitly rejects a requirement that 95 percent of eligible children from families with incomes under 200 percent of the poverty level must be enrolled in SCHIP before children in higher-income families can be covered. There are more than 500,000 poor children eligible for SCHIP, but states have not signed them up.4. Congress’ SCHIP bill covers children in some families earning up to $83,000 a year. The vetoed bill would have the result of grandfathering in New York at a higher SCHIP match rate than the rest of the country – allowing SCHIP to cover children in some households with incomes of up to $83,000 per year (400 percent of the Federal poverty level for a family of four). It also overturns the standards that would allow the Health and Human Services Secretary to disapprove State plans to cover children in higher income families before every effort has been made to cover lower income children and regardless of whether newly covered children already have private health insurance.5. Congress’ SCHIP bill would result in millions of children who now have private health insurance moving onto government coverage. Of the approximately 6 million enrollees Congress’ legislation would attract by 2012, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that 2 million (one in three) would drop private insurance to enroll.
Oh where oh where did my 47 million americans go, oh where oh where can they be?
Joseph Antos of the American Enterprise Institute
did the analysis on the above census.The main website is http://www.aei.org/The numbers you are looking for described by Antos
are belowuninsured who are NOT U.S. CITIZENS IS 45% of the
47 million.Broken down by age, 18 – 24 years old – 29.3% of
the 47 million.25 – 35 years old – 26.9% of the 47 million.Broken down by salary, $75,000 or more per year -
8.5% of the 47 million.
Those are not U.S. Citizens, but not necessarily illegal aliens.Although if there was some more investigation, one could find that the majority of the above statistic was indeed illegal aliens.I’ll have to search for more information on that specific statistic.Regardless, we shouldn’t be paying for free medical care for non-citizens and the non-citizen
statistic shouldn’t have been used by Michael Moore in his “Health Scare” movie as part of the 45 million total.Moore’s scare tactic is typical of the Liberal goose steppers. They only include part of the information and exclude parts that incriminate themselves as spreader of false documentation and analysis.
Hey, G.O.P(utz),
Good job demonstrating that any schmuck can download boilerplate spin from the G.O.P. website.
http://www.gop.com/News/Read.aspx?ID=7306
Congratulations. And for your next trick?
Not a lot of original thoughts expressed here by you CF.
More from the koolaid and tape recording they hand out to you.
All the liberal sheep are in the fold. No one ventures out, and if they dare to, they get bitten.
Ain’t it grand?
Baaaaa! Ba-aaaaaaaa! Baaaaaa!
CF2K thinks that scientific analysis of the Census report is spin.
What can you expect from the Muppet poster, he doesn’t know any better.
Yup right on cue there’s Jason.
Oh he’s got HIS government check and free medical care.
Damn everyone else!