Why I'm Suing the Bush Administration
Somebody had to do it.
After months of negotiation and countless attempts at compromise, the Bush administration is still refusing to let New York and other states across the country expand their State Children's Health Insurance Programs (SCHIP). The president is refusing to back down from destructive new rules his Administration has imposed -- the sole purpose of which are to curb bi-partisan state efforts to insure more of our nation's children.
The reason? As the president himself put it: "I mean, people have access to health care in America. They can just go to the emergency room."
It is this politics of "not my problem" that has led to the health crisis we have today.
The bureaucratic barriers to coverage the Bush administration has imposed are not only fundamentally misguided, but also illegal...
...They conflict with the statute authorizing SCHIP. Moreover, they were issued without the opportunity for public comment, as required by federal law. Accordingly, I have joined Democratic and Republican governors from states across the country to bring a lawsuit challenging these new rules in court.
It didn't have to come to this. There is widespread bipartisan support for expanding SCHIP. Even many members of the president's own party have recognized how out-of-touch he is with the American people, and instead have chosen to support compromise legislation in Congress repealing these arbitrary rules.
Unfortunately, President Bush has repeatedly threatened to veto this bipartisan bill. In justifying his position, his administration has tapped into the politics of fear -- branding the effort as "socialism."
Of course, SCHIP has nothing to do with socialism. The government would be the payer, not the provider of care, and families would have a range of private plans from which to choose. But instead of engaging on the merits, the right wing has pulled out socialism from their parade of horribles in order to frighten the public.
The president has also said that those children who already have insurance will choose to give up their coverage in order to join the program.
If you talk to doctors, health care professionals, and state leaders across the country like I have, they know the President is flat-out wrong.
These are the facts.
In New York, we want to expand coverage to every uninsured child in our state. And even though experience at the state level has shown that few children drop their existing coverage in favor of SCHIP, we have instituted some of the most stringent protections in the country in order to both prevent any potential problem and satisfy the White House.
The Bush administration, however, refuses to compromise and work with us to cover these children.
Ultimately, the president just doesn't get it. There is a health care crisis in this country, but he continues to ignore the problem while vulnerable children without insurance "just go to the emergency room."
We all know the statistics. There are 400,000 uninsured children in New York. There are 8 million uninsured children in the United States.
These staggering figures are intolerable. On both a moral and practical level, we cannot allow this to stand. The president, however, continues to say the status quo is acceptable.
Children should not have to wait until they get sick enough to go the emergency room to receive treatment. Rather, they need preventive and primary care. Ensuring that children with health problems are diagnosed and treated in a timely manner will save money and save lives.
It is imperative that we all come together to reverse the Bush administration's attempt to override the will of Congress, the will of the states, and the needs of our children.
We will continue to defend our nation's kids - even if the President will not.
This morning I gave a speech to Fordham University students. SCHIP was among the topics. A video is available here.
Cross posted at Daily Kos.
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When states sue the federal government the case goes directly to the Supreme Court. (If I remember my 5th grade civics lessons correctly.
I wonder how this will play in a court controlled by Bush people.
Eliot,
Bring the SOB down to his knees.
For the children.
I'll speak for the trolls. "Why the hell should I pay to subsidize healthcare for all of the children of illegal aliens? Let them all go back to Mexico or wherever they came from and die"! There, now the trolls can all go back to redstate.o
A lot of people have a problem with the funding of this extra SCHIP $.
Why just tobacco taxes, why not tax Viagra, diamonds, alcohol, guns, ammunition etc?
Tobacco is the poor man's tranquilizer, and God know he needs it with this admin.
I was a huge fan of yours till you came up with this outrageous idea to give illegals drivers licenses. Is there absolutely no value to US citizenship anymore? You have no right to do this, and you have no idea how many of your followers and supporters you have now alienated.
Is this just an administrative square dance with the Courts, with no consequences for limiting access to care for sick patients?
If a child dies from lack of access to care,will anyone charge the administration with negligent homicide?
Are poor children expendable in America?
Yes, it would seem.
The Republican philosophy is that the right to life ends at birth.
If people die young from lack of health care it is less for Social Security to pay out. People living longer than 65 are a menace to profits.
You collect taxes there in New York. If you care SO VERY much about New York's uninsured middle class children, then insure them yourself.
Where's the beef?
OK, fine...now what about those licenses for "illegal aliens"?
The bottom line is that every child under the age of 12 should have free access to health care in this country.
The fact that we focus more on "re-building" a foreign country than our own children is a travesty.
He won't veto the bill. He has seen the writing on the wall. For the first time gross doesn't win.
There was a cartoon on the Washington Post that approving SCHIP might lead to lawmakers approving healthcare for ... their parents! The mind reels.
Governor Spitzer:
Now what happen's when some one sue's YOU - For indangering the life's of all new yorker's - with your amnasty - let the illegals drive policy ???
Or New York being sued for taxing a religion ???
.
At least they can't be accused of forced education. You obviously managed to avoid one, woofwarrior.
Go Guv Go. Nice to see a true warrior in the field. It will take many people with your courage and strength to take back Our Country.
I am glad you are my Governor. As Michael Moore says, it should be called "Christian health care" rather than "socialized health care" because true "Christians" care for the poor and the sick.
Governor Idiot Spitzer has been on a spending spree recently. The problem is everytime he does it it is our money he is spending. He may think he is on a moral crusade but, ultimetaly it is the taxpayers who will pay the bills. He is out of touch with the states middle class taxpayers on many issues. Such as granting drivers licenses to illegal immigrants which is just the most recent example.
BCP
http://bee
Providing preventative medical care will actually save money compared with drastic emergency care.
Health insurance premium payers actually pay for the "free" care doled out at emergency rooms. Either you can pay more money to insurance companies with their co pays, deductibles and denial of coverage and mega profits or something more reasonable.
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