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In hope we are saved--NEW papal encyclical |
Bush chooses tobacco and insurance industry interests over expanded healthcare for children In a politically divided America, one might expect that it would be difficult to get most people to agree on solutions to a problem as expensive and complicated as healthcare. But a recent New York Times/CBS News poll found that 94% of Americans think that children without health insurance is a “serious” or “very serious” problem. 9 million poor children are currently estimated to be without it, and come September 30 the number could jump to 15 million. That’s because the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) that covers those extra 6.6 million children will be expiring, and President Bush vowed this week to veto the bipartisan compromise that has now passed in both House and Senate. As someone who cares for children and who has studied the religious dimension of American politics, I think this issue qualifies as a true moral urgency. Mr Bush plans to veto the legislation because it incorporates significant new cigarette taxes to pay for the expanded care, and because he and his allies in the insurance industry fear that some privately insured lower-income families will choose the public program instead of private health insurance. Conservatives, including presidential candidates Rudolph Giuliani and Mitt Romney, have described expanded coverage as a slippery slope toward nationalized healthcare. At a town hall meeting in Exeter NH, Mitt Romney said, “I don't want the guys who ran the Katrina cleanup running my health care system.” Giuliani wrote last month in a Boston Globe op-ed piece, “The future of America's healthcare system lies in free-market solutions, not socialist models.” Other critics have complained about the $7 billion annual cost of the program, which would equal about 35 days of current US expenditures in Iraq. The cost would be covered by a 61¢ increase in the price for a pack of cigarettes, by itself probably the single most effective deterrent to teenagers taking up smoking—which otherwise could be expected eventually to kill about half of those who take up the habit. As a pediatric specialist, I have seen what happens when children do not receive routine check-ups, preventive care, and regular treatment for those with chronic illnesses. Uninsured children are often taken to hospital emergency rooms after their condition has worsened to a point where they have severe pain or cannot attend school. Relying on emergency care significantly increases the cost of treatment and fails to provide the follow-up that results in real healing. In particular, children with chronic diseases like arthritis and asthma are at particular risk for longterm disability, and even death, when their families don’t have the resources to provide them with routine pediatric care. In our country, being born into poverty should not determine which children are able to grow up healthy with a fair shot at the American dream. As a Catholic, I believe that we are all diminished as Americans when even one child is sick and cannot receive medical care. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has stated that “every human being has the right to quality health services, regardless of age, income, illness or condition of life.” Despite campaigning as a “compassionate conservative,” President Bush’s stance on SCHIP now is quite a contrast to his position in 2004, when he said at the Republican Convention, “America’s children must also have a healthy start in life. In a new term, we will lead an aggressive effort to enroll millions of poor children who are eligible but not signed up for the government’s health insurance programs.” Last month the Administration sent letters to the health directors in all the states significantly restricting their ability to relax rules that have kept them from insuring more low-income children. If President Bush vetoes the SCHIP legislation, millions of additional poorer children will slip through the cracks. Like most Americans, I think we have a moral imperative to make sure all children receive the healthcare they need. A poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health recently showed that the top health care priority of Americans is expanding coverage among the uninsured. The Georgetown University Health Policy Institute found that 90% of Americans want Congress to help states cover more of the country’s uninsured children. 62% oppose limiting the program to the lowest-income children and no one else. This is one of those rare instances of bipartisan support for a program that actually works. While SCHIP does not solve or directly address the overall health care crisis in this country, it takes a big step toward solving the most urgent dimension of the problem. I am hoping that Mr Bush will literally sign on to the idea that healthy children are the kind of moral priority that merits a Rose Garden ceremony beneath a big “Mission Accomplished” sign, even if it costs him a few friends in the insurance and tobacco industries. Sept 21, 2007 Patrick Whelan MD PhD is the director of the Catholic Democrats,
a national advocacy group, and is a member of the Pediatrics Faculty
at Harvard Medical School.
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