Keep SCHIP Separate From ObamaCare, by DICK MORRIS
Published on DickMorris.com on December 5, 2014
In the Clinton White House, I worked hard to help to craft
the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in the aftermath of the
crash of Hillary's health care proposals.
The idea, warmly embraced by the president, was that children's health
care should not be held hostage in the national debate over medical funding and
insurance.
Now the left is trying to eliminate the SCHIP program and
fold it into ObamaCare. Such a move
would hold the health care of our children hostage to the overall and ultimate
fate of ObamaCare. It is vital that SCHIP
continue as a separate program.
It has always been a weakness of ObamaCare that it did not
deal with the problems of the elderly, the young, or the poor, whose
requirements are met, respectively, by Medicare, SCHIP and Medicare. By trying to bring SCHIP under ObamaCare
retroactively, the left is trying to raise the stakes in the debate which may
follow a Court decision striking down the ObamaCare federal exchange subsidies.
SCHIP provides for medical coverage for children who live in
households with incomes less than four times the poverty level (about $75,000).
It has worked well and must be
continued.
The program provides certain key advantages over ObamaCare
which it would lose if it were folded into the overall program. ObamaCare plans usually have very high
deductibles which SCHIP does not. The
limits on choice of doctors or hospitals to approved networks hurts ObamaCare
but does not affect SCHIP.
SCHIP is working and don't fix it if it ain't broke.
No comments:
Post a Comment