Originally Posted By: whomod

...After 10 years of sailing along as a feel-good idea that just about everyone supported, the children's medical insurance program has been drawn into the contentious debate about healthcare in general.

Bush has attacked the compromise bill because it would expand coverage to some middle-class families instead of retaining the plan's original focus on those with low incomes. The bill could lay the groundwork for government-run national healthcare, he has said....


Putting aside whether or not the bill could lead to socialized medicine (since I realize some of you think that would be a good thing), Bush has a good point about the cost and who the plan should or should not cover.

No one is saying that the poor shouldn't have access to basic health care subsidized by the government. That's part of the social contract and the social services we have long provided the destitute of our nation.

This program, however, goes beyond giving health care to the poor. As a columnist in today's New York Post notes:

  • taxpayers fund health coverage for children in families of four earning as much as $72,000 per year.... Democrats in Congress want to open the program to families of four earning $83,000 per year or more


Furthermore, sadly, Bush isn't even per se against expanding the program. Instead, "President Bush is OK with expanding SCHIP to cover well-off families - but only if the states enroll 95 percent of those lower-income children first."

That's not a safety net for the poor. That's BOTH parties buying votes from the middle class.