S-CHIP denied, struggle continues for health care

Some 400 people marched through the streets of New York on Oct. 17 to demand “Health care for all!” Participants included many youths, health care workers and advocates. Sharon Black, an organizer with the Troops Out Now Coalition who attended the march, reports, “The demo was great; but the trip back and forth with our signs [reading ‘Healthcare, not warfare’] was just as good; on the subways and street we were greeted with a lot of ‘yes.’”

Protest marches from NYC’s Bryant Park. WW photo: John Catalinotto

Just days later, the House of Representatives failed to override President Bush’s veto of a bill to provide health insurance coverage for 10 million children in the United States. The bill would have provided $35 billion to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP).

The program provides health care for children whose families have incomes that are too high to be covered by Medicaid, but not high enough to afford private health insurance.

The House Democrats are now saying that they will reintroduce the bill with minor changes. Nancy Pelosi says the goal of health care for 10 million children is “not negotiable.” Yet it has become clear to many that, as with the issue of stopping war funding, the Democrats do not have the political will to push this through.

Bush and the Republicans claimed their disapproval was based on three factors: that people who could afford health insurance would, instead of paying for it, rely on the government program; that the program could be used by undocumented immigrants; and that an increase in funding for the program would be a step in the direction of “socialized medicine.”

However, the Bush administration, famous for its tax cuts benefiting the rich, has never had a problem giving a handout to those that need it the least. The assumption that people “cheat” the government by not paying for health care when they can afford it is inherently anti-worker, and ignores the massive outcry throughout the country from the millions in the U.S. who currently don’t have insurance, and the many who are dying because of that lack.

Falling in line with the anti-immigrant rhetoric surrounding the presidential candidacies; Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton announced Oct. 18 that her proposed “universal” health care plan would not cover undocumented immigrants. (Associated Press, Oct. 19)

Meanwhile, socialized medicine—that is, medicine that is adequate, free and available for everyone—is completely within economic range in the world’s richest country, were it not for the allocation of funds for imperialist plunder. A flyer for an Oct. 27 anti-war march, organized by the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice, points out: “The war in Iraq has already cost Michigan taxpayers over $12 billion and will cost another $4 billion next year alone. The $12 billion could be used instead to ... pay the health care costs of 7,181,636 children for one year.”

At the time of this writing, the National Priorities Project reports that the money that has already been spent on the occupation of Iraq could have insured 276,962,389 children for one year. (costofwar.com)

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