The belief in his convictions, and the lack of an executive office successor is allowing George Bush to really show his true stripes as his administration collapses around his ankles. Because the S-Chip bill expands government coverage for children instead of forcing poor families into un-affordable private health care (those with children already sick would be denied for pre-existing conditions anyway), he is going to veto it. This will force families on the low end of the earning ladder to drop health care for their children or make some really tough choices. Those families with children who are already sick will be forced way below the poverty line to afford the expensive medicines and procedures keeping their children alive. Or their children will just die so that George Bush can hand more profit to the insurance companies.
President Bush is threatening to veto any substantial increase in spending for a highly successful children’s health program on the bizarre theory that expanding it would be the “beginning salvo†in establishing a government-run health care system. His shortsighted ideological opposition would leave millions of children without health insurance at a time when medical costs are soaring.
The president’s ire was provoked by a bipartisan bill approved by the Senate Finance Committee last week that would expand the so-called State Children’s Health Insurance Program, a joint federal-state effort that, over the last decade, has substantially reduced the number of uninsured children in the country. The program, known as S-chip, seeks to cover children whose family income is too high to qualify for Medicaid but too low to afford costly private coverage. It is due to expire on Sept. 30 unless Congress reauthorizes it.
full article: Vetoing Children’s Health – New York Times