Do Kids Really Need Health Insurance? And If They Did, Wouldn't They Be Able to Afford It?

It's hard to believe but SCHIP, the no-brainer federal program that funds the states so they can provide health insurance for children, is in trouble.   But really, why am I surprised living as I do under a regime whose guiding principle is Starve the Beast, where the Beast is comprised of the American poor and middle class.  So sure BushCo's rabid opposition to funding even the tiniest expansion of SCHIP is about punishing the poor and their stupid kids who really should have planned better when being born.  And it's about protecting the tobacco industry from taxes, natch.  But what's really cool is that it's also about how terrified the medical industrial complex is of the growing understanding among Americans that when it comes to health care, we are being taken literally for all we're worth.   When the Corporate Cheerleader-in-Chief starts talking about how funding SCHIP is the first step in a plot to "federalize" health care in the US, we're only a few minutes away from the return of Harry and Louise. 

Don't miss this opportunity - start planning now the house parties and other events you will build around the dvd release of Sicko.  Start talking to your friends and neighbors now about how to get its message to the most people in your community and how you will help those people get your message to your representatives on Capitol Hill and to your state legislators.  Vigils outside your Congress members' offices,  post card writing campaigns, letters to the editors, guest opinions in your local papers, town halls and petition drives are all good places to start.  Don't forget to call your local paper to cover any event you put together.

Comments

[KathyF]

Well, if all the children die, we'll have fewer poor people, won't we? See how ingenious BushCo is at fighting poverty?

(BTW, you are echoing the comment from Andrew Tobias I posted on my blog today, about punishing people who get tumors.)

[eRobin]

Hi Kathy :)

That's BushCo's creed: punish the poor, punish the weak, punish the unlucky. They deserve their pain.