John Kerry on The Hill Blog: Insurance For Kids Will Not Fall Victim to Politics

The battle over SCHIP was in the news on Monday with Paul Krugman noting that "denying basic health care to children whose parents lack the means to pay for it, simply because you’re afraid that success in insuring children might put big government in a good light, is just morally wrong."

And the public understands that. According to a recent Georgetown University poll, 9 in 10 Americans — including 83 percent of self-identified Republicans — support an expansion of the children’s health insurance program.

There is, it seems, more basic decency in the hearts of Americans than is dreamt of in Mr. Bush’s philosophy.

John Kerry, a longtime champion for healthcare for kids had a post on The Hill Blog on Monday about the battle over State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP):

The fact that nine million children in our country live without health care is unacceptable. When it comes to family values, it’s time for Congress to start putting its money where its mouth is. We all know that members of Congress love to talk the talk about children, their health, and raising our kids right. Well, this week I’m going to challenge them to do just that when I bring my amendment to the floor of the Senate to fully fund the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) at $50 billion. This will bring coverage to approximately half of the nine million uninsured children in American today.

You would think it would be common sense to give some of the nation’s poorest kids healthcare. Not to this White House. President Bush spoke loud and clear when he said last week that he will block care for these kids with a stroke of his veto pen. Not only is he against expanding SCHIP – he doesn’t even want to retain the children who are currently enrolled. That’s wrong, and this Democratic Congress will make sure that insurance for kids will not fall victim to political games.

As a self-employed single mother who hasn't been able to afford healthcare insurance for the past couple of years, thanks to the not so booming BushCo economy, I have been a longtime supporter of John Kerry's Kids First Act. It is unacceptable that so many children are without healthcare in this country. It's time to amke healthcare for all children in America a reality.

The WaPo's editorial chimes in on the SCHIP debate asking, "Do House Republicans really want to be arguing for taking away health insurance from children who now have it?"

Cross posted from The Democratic Daily.