Bush's gut is back.
According to the WaPo, Bush opposes expanding, or even maintaining SCHIP program at its current eligibility levels, "on philosophical grounds". That appears to be the paper's paraphrase but it's probably accurate.
The facts, as best I can figure them from various reports: since its creation in 1997, SCHIP has cost the feds $5 billion a year. The renewal under debate is for the next five years. In light of rising health costs and population growth, the Congressional Budget Office has calculated that SCHIP needs an additional $2.7 billion per year to maintain its current national enrollment rates without shifting recipients into other programs like Medicaid.(Currently, SCHIP covers about 4.1 million kids per month, or 6 million over the course of a year, and 350,000 adults, the latter in only 12 states.) The Senate Finance Committee has proposed a $7 million a year increase (to $12 million a year), that would expand coverage by around 3.3 million people. The White House wants to increase funding by only $1 billion a year, which under CBO estimates would mean a reduction in the scope of the program.
This actually reinforces one of my core beliefs about the Bushies and conservatives in general: they may quite often act like the tools of special interests, but they're really at their worst when they're following their guts and acting "philosophically".
And that must be the story here. As the CBPP points out in its excellent fact sheet (via Obsidian Wings and LGM):
SCHIP and Medicaid are not single-payer systems, and most SCHIP (and Medicaid) beneficiaries receive coverage through private managed care plans with which their state SCHIP and Medicaid programs contract. The American Medical Association (AMA) and the trade associations for the private insurance companies and the drug companies — hardly supporters of “government run” health care — support expanding SCHIP to cover more uninsured low-income children.
True enough. Not only are Senate Republicans pushing for SCHIP expansion (plus pretty much every mainstream editorial board in the country), but so is the medical-industrial complex. The AMA has been running newspaper ads on the subject. PHRMA's Billy Tauzin is flacking away for SCHIP. AHIP is also on board. These lobbies have nothing to fear from the expansion of SCHIP and Medicaid which employ their services. They're not looking for White House protection.
And what about the small business lobby? The U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposes the current bill, but only because they don't like the tax hike on cigarettes proposed to fund it. Meanwhile, via the Boston Globe, during the same media tour in which he promised to veto the SCHIP legislation coming out of the Senate, Bush also mused on the predicament of small businesses faced with rising health insurance costs:
Bush spoke after attending a discussion at Man & Machine Inc. in Landover with small-business leaders the president said feel pinched by high health care costs. "They don't like the idea of having to make the decision between providing health care for their employees and not expanding their businesses," he said.
I don't know, but wouldn't this be a good argument for letting the government take over some of the insurance costs of the children of lower-wage employees?
Bush doesn't appear to be anybody's tool in this debate. He's just a moron who doesn't even let the things he knows interfere with his conservative "philosophy". Wrecking SCHIP is just insanely bad politics based on conservative anti-government ideals that the administration is backing up with pure bunk. (On a side note, Administration flack Al Hubbard's assertion that more government-funded health care would wreck “the important doctor-patient relationship that exists in the private sector” sounds like it was transposed from the "state-run health care breeds terror" bullshit heard on Fox last week.)
I'll take corporate shilling over what passes for "conviction" on the right any day of the week. Any corporate interest worth its salt at least understands the value of a reasonably content and complacent citizenry.
The facts, as best I can figure them from various reports: since its creation in 1997, SCHIP has cost the feds $5 billion a year. The renewal under debate is for the next five years. In light of rising health costs and population growth, the Congressional Budget Office has calculated that SCHIP needs an additional $2.7 billion per year to maintain its current national enrollment rates without shifting recipients into other programs like Medicaid.(Currently, SCHIP covers about 4.1 million kids per month, or 6 million over the course of a year, and 350,000 adults, the latter in only 12 states.) The Senate Finance Committee has proposed a $7 million a year increase (to $12 million a year), that would expand coverage by around 3.3 million people. The White House wants to increase funding by only $1 billion a year, which under CBO estimates would mean a reduction in the scope of the program.
This actually reinforces one of my core beliefs about the Bushies and conservatives in general: they may quite often act like the tools of special interests, but they're really at their worst when they're following their guts and acting "philosophically".
And that must be the story here. As the CBPP points out in its excellent fact sheet (via Obsidian Wings and LGM):
SCHIP and Medicaid are not single-payer systems, and most SCHIP (and Medicaid) beneficiaries receive coverage through private managed care plans with which their state SCHIP and Medicaid programs contract. The American Medical Association (AMA) and the trade associations for the private insurance companies and the drug companies — hardly supporters of “government run” health care — support expanding SCHIP to cover more uninsured low-income children.
True enough. Not only are Senate Republicans pushing for SCHIP expansion (plus pretty much every mainstream editorial board in the country), but so is the medical-industrial complex. The AMA has been running newspaper ads on the subject. PHRMA's Billy Tauzin is flacking away for SCHIP. AHIP is also on board. These lobbies have nothing to fear from the expansion of SCHIP and Medicaid which employ their services. They're not looking for White House protection.
And what about the small business lobby? The U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposes the current bill, but only because they don't like the tax hike on cigarettes proposed to fund it. Meanwhile, via the Boston Globe, during the same media tour in which he promised to veto the SCHIP legislation coming out of the Senate, Bush also mused on the predicament of small businesses faced with rising health insurance costs:
Bush spoke after attending a discussion at Man & Machine Inc. in Landover with small-business leaders the president said feel pinched by high health care costs. "They don't like the idea of having to make the decision between providing health care for their employees and not expanding their businesses," he said.
I don't know, but wouldn't this be a good argument for letting the government take over some of the insurance costs of the children of lower-wage employees?
Bush doesn't appear to be anybody's tool in this debate. He's just a moron who doesn't even let the things he knows interfere with his conservative "philosophy". Wrecking SCHIP is just insanely bad politics based on conservative anti-government ideals that the administration is backing up with pure bunk. (On a side note, Administration flack Al Hubbard's assertion that more government-funded health care would wreck “the important doctor-patient relationship that exists in the private sector” sounds like it was transposed from the "state-run health care breeds terror" bullshit heard on Fox last week.)
I'll take corporate shilling over what passes for "conviction" on the right any day of the week. Any corporate interest worth its salt at least understands the value of a reasonably content and complacent citizenry.
1 Comments:
"I don't know, but wouldn't this be a good argument for letting the government take over some of the insurance costs of the children of lower-wage employees?"
Bush isn't a moron, he's a primitive whose thinking aligns well with that of one of his heroes, Calvin Coolidge.
This leaves Bush incapable of understanding, much less appreciating, concepts such as public service and the greatest good for the greatest number.
In Bush's thinking, it's all marketplace rules all the time. He could thus privatize police and fire services without a second thought. (Sorry, m'am, but if you don't have a major credit card, we'll have to run a credit check before we can put your fire out.)
There is one exception to this general rule, though. If it looks as though there is a possibility of a union becoming involved or becoming stronger because of some change involving public services, Bush uses public service as justification to do as much union busting as he can get away with. To that limited extent, he has some concept of public service.
What a piece of work.
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