In keeping with the season and with apologies to Dr. Seuss, we must investigate whether there lurks a Grinch plotting to undermine children’s health care in the United States or if the SCHIP debate is a wily shell game to take our eyes off real health care reform.

SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program) has dominated the health care debate recently. Congress passed a bill expanding health insurance subsidies to private insurers to cover uninsured children from lower income families. President Bush vetoed it. By a vote of 273-156 the House fell 13 votes short in its attempt to override Bush’s veto.

Figures for the number of children currently covered and the number that would be added if SCHIP expansion had succeeded are all over the place and hard to pin down. Only a policy wonk can truly understand the specific details of this unfortunately privatized approach.

Let’s pretend for a moment that expanded SCHIP had become law. Even if SCHIP covered all children, important questions arise. What about the parents of these children? Isn’t it inhumane to let them twist in the wind and fall through the cracks of our health care system without a safety net?

A skeptic could conclude that the purpose of the SCHIP discussion is to confuse the issue of health care reform and overload our brains with minutia that distract from the bigger picture. Or is it divide and conquer, pitting senior citizens and their health care programs against children and their needs? Most Americans believe that our health care system needs fundamental change. They recognize that we are mired in a system that functions for the welfare of the health insurance companies, not for the interests of the sick.

We need to raise our voices in a unified cry for public single-payer universal health care coverage. Such a program would provide greater efficiency and allow medical decisions to be made by a doctor and patient, not a middleman insurance company with its eye on the bottom line rather than a good medical outcome. Let’s cover the children, their families, our veterans, senior citizens, everyone, with a security blanket that provides comprehensive coverage from birth to death.

Here’s how you can help:
Request that your PA State Senator support SB300. Request that your PA State Representative support HB1660. These bills contain the Family and Business Health Care Security Act, a public single-payer plan for PA. See: www.HealthCare4AllPA.org Contact your U.S. Congressman/woman and U.S. Senator and request their support for HR676, the U.S. National Health Insurance Act (Expanded and Enhanced Medicare for All). See: www.pnhp.org (Physicians for a National Health Program).

It’s a great holiday gift that you can give to yourself, your family and friends, your state, and your country. Stay focused, and don’t let the Grinch take your eyes off the prize.

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