Health Care for Poor Children.... A No-Brainer

The Senate voted yesterday, with a veto-proof majority of 68-31, to extend government-funded health care to the children of people who cannot afford private insurance. Bravo. According to the Washington Post, this expansion to the State Children's Health Insurance Program would be designed to fill the dangerous gap between Medicaid and private health insurance. Kevin Drum, over at Political Animal, sums up the opposition best:

Screaming "socialized medicine" over and over just isn't going to do the trick this time.

While the bill was passed with actual bipartisan support in the Senate, its much more ambitious House version saw more bickering and a much narrower vote (225-204) - hardly veto-proof. And it looks like President Bush will move to veto it. The Times quoted HHS Secretary Michael O. Leavitt as saying the expansion is legislation "the president will have no choice but to veto.” (Typical of White House gall, Leavitt accused Congress of denying health care to children passing legislation that will, gasp, fund health care for children).
If Bush does veto the final version of the bill, SCHIP will expire on September 30, and become the dominant health care issue in the 2008 campaign. In the meantime, however, those children and families who depend on federal assistance will be left in the lurch.
And we're supposed to believe it's Congress's fault.