http://blackburn.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=70797Few issues before Congress are more important than increasing access to quality healthcare for all Americans. Unfortunately, this past week's House consideration of H.R. 3162, (a bill to reauthorize the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP) proves that the Democrat Leadership is more interested in a dramatic expansion of the welfare state and less interested in providing quality free market access to health care for our nation's uninsured children.
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The bill cynically chops out the income limit for eligibility, and expands the eligibility pool to include “children” up to the age of 21. Do 21 year old young men and women deserve government-funded healthcare benefits at the expense of elderly Medicare beneficiaries? It also institutes a substantial tobacco tax increase (above and beyond the .42 cent increase levied by the State Government this year). In addition, it enacts a tax on every private insurance policy.
And the cuts do not stop there. In perhaps the most outrageous blow to common sense healthcare policy, H.R. 3162 repeals current law that requires proof of citizenship when enrolling in the Medicaid program. So while illegal immigrants enjoy access to government-funded health benefits, seniors are left holding the bag.
The liberal leadership in Congress knows that it does not have the support of the American public to construct a full-blown socialized healthcare system. Instead, they’re pretending that this radical change in policy is a simple update to a popular, long-established program -- a tactic that the Wall Street Journal termed “slow-motion socialism.”
Experience has taught us that the best way to ensure quality coverage for all is to encourage individual choice and let the free market work, but H.R. 3162 ignores this record. That is why I voted against this bill, and encourage the President to veto the legislation should it ever reach his desk.