As is the ritual in Washington every two years, this week Congress began a new legislative session with Republican John Boehner (R-OH) holding the Speaker's gavel. In remarks opening the 112th Session, Speaker Boehner recognized the enormous challenges of our times, including the staggering national unemployment rate and mounting federal budget deficit. Boehner also acknowledged that health care costs are continuing to rise for families and small businesses. Boehner told the new class of lawmakers, "Hard work and tough decisions will be required of the 112th Congress. No longer can we fall short."
On this we agree.
However, in light of this call to action it is disappointing that repealing health reform is at the top of Speaker Boehner's agenda for the new Congress. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, health reform will not only reduce the budget deficit in the next ten years by more than $100 billion, it also will ensure that an estimated 32 million Americans who are uninsured or underinsured can get high quality, affordable health coverage they can rely on. Investing in our children's health is investing in America's future. When we help children grow and succeed, we are paving the way for our country's next generation of workers and leaders to fulfill the American Dream.
While there are a wide array of opinions about health care reform and its impact, it is indisputable that our nation's children, especially low-income children and those with special health care needs, are better off today because of the new law. Repealing health reform would be devastating for these the millions children and families who already are or soon will benefit from this historic legislation. Why? Here are 10 key reasons:
- If health reform were repealed, insurers would go back to denying coverage for children with pre-existing conditions. Parents of children with cancer, children born with a birth defect, children with asthma, special-needs kids, among others, would once again be unable to get coverage for their kids without the Affordable Care Act.
- Insurers would return to the practice of placing lifetime limits on coverage so that if a child is fortunate enough to beat leukemia when they are 8 they would be uninsurable if they face another serious illness later in life.
- Dependent children through age 26 would not be guaranteed access to coverage on their parents' policy, leaving scores of young adults, including recent high school and college grads, back among the ranks of the uninsured.
- Insurers would not have to cover vision care services or eyeglasses for children even if it is impossible for a child to be successful in school if they can't see.
- Insurers also would not be required to cover dental care, a horrible return to the days when lack of coverage could cause a child to die from an infected tooth that could have been addressed for about 100.
- Repealing health reform would jeopardize the future of the successful Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a federal-state program that offers low or no-cost coverage for families who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to buy their own coverage. CHIP and Medicaid have been crucial for families during this recession, ensuring that coverage for kids has remained stable despite the downturn in the economy.
- Children with terminal illnesses would be returned to the days when they would not be able to get compassionate end-of-life hospice care unless they agreed to forgo looking for a cure for their illness.
- Insurers would be allowed to resume the practice of charging co-payments for preventive health services, including essential well-baby and well-child visits, and vaccinations, creating financial disincentives for parents to get care for their children that keeps them healthy.
- Children in foster care would no longer qualify for Medicaid beyond age 18.
- New efforts to eliminate bureaucratic red tape and streamline enrollment processes for children who are already eligible but not enrolled in public health coverage would suffer if health reform was repealed. Nearly two-thirds of children who are uninsured actually qualify for coverage but face significant barriers that make it difficult for them to sign-up or re-enroll for coverage.
Speaker Boehner is right. American families are still suffering because our health care system is broken. However, the Affordable Care Act is a responsible and cost-effective investment in the health and health care of every American. Repealing health reform would turn back the clock, especially for our nation's children. If you care about the American Dream, investing in and protecting the health of our nation's children isn't just the right thing to do. It's one of the best investments we can make as a nation.
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As a nation, we could increase the productivity of our workers with good basic healthcare. But we don't. Instead, we sit back, let them get sick, then spend millions of dollars for critical 'life saving' care. It's just another version of the bailout.
What we need is solid, universal, BASIC healthcare. Anything beyond that, leave it to the insurance companies and private payment systems.
I agree the "Think of the children!" line is grossly overused, but in reality severely undervalued. We hear so much about the horrors of abortions, but the moment they're born, hey... to heck with 'em. They're on their own. If they make it to adulthood, let's send them to war. Yeah, that'll fix it.
Not.
We were so fortunate to have health care for our child, but we would have lost our insurance for our disabled youngster if my husband lost his job; our son, born thirty four years ago would be uninsurable with any other employer-provided health plan. Even with our health plan, the costs borne by us for deductibles, co-pays and physical therapy were astronomical. Parents, at that time, would have to spend down all their financial resources, to qualify for Medicaid for their child. Approximately 30 years ago, the government realized that such children whose parents didn't want to institutionalize them with all the costs borne by taxpayers, should provide assistance in the form of medicaid waivers (Katy Beckett Waiver), for such medically labile children.
The CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Plan), now enables low-wage parents to get insurance for their children at a reasonable cost. Preventive health care and consistent health care based on actual dollar cost are the best use of our tax dollars...after all the children are the future of out country.
I'd like to think that we are not barbaric...that we provide resources for all the disadvantaged members of our society...including lower income families, the elderly, the disabled and children.
How many kids will die because we STILL rank around 35th in the world in terms of quality of health care? How many kids will die because our per capita cost is STILL nearly twice what any other industrialized nation's is? How many kids will die because the leading cause of bankruptcy in this nation is STILL medical bills?
If anyone cared about how many kids were killed as the result of our failed health care system they would have REFORMED HEALTH CARE in this country. But we don't care so they didn't reform anything.
Quit pretending. The fight was lost for another generation.
Cutting the Profit Margin Insurance Company's take does not bother me a bit. So what is the CEO has to live with only 2 Beach Houses and a Smaller Yacht !!!!!!
Insurance Company's Profits will still be over $ 183 Billion Dollars
And yet under Obamacare they can still deny children and adults coverage due to pre-existing conditions.
According to Michael Moore and his staff they maximum fine for denial of coverage due to pre-existing conditions is $100 a day per individual, $36,500 for the year. This is pathetically weak. My brother who sold chemo drugs. Says if you get cancer and need chem it will cost you at the bare minimum $40 k.
So IF an insurance company is caught and IF they are fined they will just eat the fine rather than extending coverage.
This, among other reasons, is why so many of us on the left are upset by this corporate sell out called "health reform". It does very little, is riddled with loop holes and does not contain costs.
The exception is that Hawaii has, by far, the lowest per capita health care costs of the 50 states; and, Hawaii has the nation's longest longevity. The reason for this is that Hawaii enacted a health care law, very similar to the one called "Obama Care" 37 years ago. This law shifed the entire population from illness care to health care through early detection and prevention. We Hawaii residents,
who have benefitted enormously from this, are absolutely apalled by the action being taken by Republicans in the House. HAWAII HAS PROVEN THAT THEY MUST BE STOPPED (!)
try to refute opposing points of view. Now they just dismiss, reject them, out of hand.
As with the targeting health care reform. The rule of thumb, for years, was to let CBO score
projects and they were the last, official word. Now boehner refers to CBO as just another opinion.
Why follow the rules when it is just easier to change the rules to suit your own twisted ideology.
One reason or a thousand would not make one bit of difference to these zealots