Universal Medi-sense

Listening to NPR this morning, I heard a section on the ongoing fight between President Bush and the Congress about expanding SCHIP and providing health care coverage to more low-income kids.

There's something insane about the fact that a president who vetoed almost no spending bills in the first seven years of his presidency is going to such lengths to prevent an expansion of state-funded health care for uninsured children.

For me, the irony was magnified by the fact that earlier this week I was in San Francisco, at a CenterForce Summit event on prison issues. There, I heard Bob Sillen talk about medical services in California's prisons. Sillen is a federal court-hired receiver. His office was created when federal judges yanked control of medical services inside prison from the state's department of corrections and rehabilitation in 2005, finding the state had tolerated unconstitutional and frequently deadly healthcare services for inmates for far too long.

These days, Sillen has virtually unlimited power to order the department to increase funding for specific services, and to dip into the state's general fund if the correctional bureaucracy fails to come through with the dollars. He's forcing prisons to build new medical units, has gotten the governor aboard a plan to build thousands of beds specifically for sick prisoners, has forced the state to hire more medical professionals and pay them better wages.

So, here's my question: if grossly inadequate medical services for prisoners have been found unconstitutional, and funds have been released to tackle this issue, then how come it's ok to have millions of free-world kids without proper access to quality health-care? It doesn't compute.

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Comments

[Photofarm]

05:15 AM on 10/26/2007

The lie about SCHIP is that neither Bush nor Democrats are cutting the program. The difference is how much each will increase the program. I think Bush proposed a 5 billion dollar increase, and Democrats proposed a 20 billion dollar increase. So there you have, both sides increase the budget, but Democrats and the Main Stream Lieing media say that Bush is cutting the program. No wonder the budget is out of control.

[NYDamien]

02:21 AM on 10/26/2007

Then let's arrest all children without health insurance. Sentence them to incarceration at home with their parents. Provide the children with health care and pay the parents to guard them.

[The Collinbrandt]

12:01 AM on 10/26/2007

The one thing everyone should realize that the rich like Bush, have all their health care needs paid for by other people like, in Bush's job, by the tax paying publick that Mr. Bush says should pay for their own health care or if they cannot, then they shoud die. Republicans believe that those who get their money and power from their parents are much better then those like myself who work and struggle everday just to survive therefor, our lives are worth much less then theirs so we shoudld be taxed to pay for the more fortunate like the bush family, the republicans and repulicrats. I am not sure why I am worth less than George Bush because I was born very poor therefor, I should not get medical care eventhough I worked hard to provide medical care for the rulers like George Bush, the republicans and republicats. I guess my life was a total waste and the lives of all those not born rich are a waste
acording to the republicans and republicrats. Please Robesperre come quicky!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[personallydisinterested]

12:00 AM on 10/26/2007

30 billion is way to much to spend on schip. Now, if you were to spend 50 billion or mabey even 100 billion on a government funded program that first went through big pharmainshosp, that would be perfectly acceptable. So, if we really want to provide health care for children, we should be willing to spend twice as much to cover fewer children so that our corporations can still afford to own our politicians.

[IPdoc]

10:54 PM on 10/25/2007

The matter is simple. Prisoners (much like foster kids) are wards of the state. Since the state has assumed responsibility for their total care, health care falls under that umbrella. The concept of "cruel and unusual punishment" seems to have greater legal relevance for those directly under the state's charge than for the rest of us.