Republicans Deny Health Care To Children To Protect Insurance Companies

-- by Dave Johnson

It comes down to who you think the government should protect - citizens or corporations. It's as simple as that.

Republicans voted against a health plan for kids, and Bush promises a veto, and they say this is because it doesn't protect private health insurance companies. So the kids don't get health care coverage.

Bush: Kids' health care will get vetoed,

But Bush has promised a veto, saying the measure is too costly, unacceptably raises taxes, extends government-covered insurance to children in families who can afford private coverage, and smacks of a move toward completely federalized health care....

"Our goal should be to move children who have no health insurance to private coverage — not to move children who already have private health insurance to government coverage," Bush said.

Fundamental questions over which direction our country takes on health care are at the heart of the discussion over SCHIP: Will we as a nation embrace a consumer-centered, market-driven health system or a government-run, European-style approach?

Should decisions like this be public (us, you and me, the people deciding together what is best) or private (corporate and one-dollar-one-vote systems)?

Who is our economy for, anyway?

Posted by Dave Johnson at September 22, 2007 12:38 PM