When Rep. Dave Reichert cast his Nay vote this evening against the Children’s Health and Medicare Protection Act, he didn’t just cast a vote against providing health care to millions of American children, he voted directly against the financial interests of Washington state. The bill not only provides health coverage to children in working families earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but can’t afford insurance, it also more than doubles federal funds available to Washington state to cover uninsured children. According to a press release from Rep. Jay Inslee:
Until now, Washington and 10 other states were penalized for expanding health insurance coverage to children in families with incomes just over the poverty line before the popular State Children’s Insurance Plan (SCHIP) was enacted in 1997. Since enactment, they’ve had to fight every few years to spend even a fraction of unused federal funds to cover children at this income level. States that didn’t cover these children a decade ago have had no such limitation on the use of federal SCHIP funds.
A permanent fix for this inequity was included in the Children’s Health and Medicare Protection (CHAMP) Act, H.R. 3162, legislation that would provide $50 billion in new funding for SCHIP and Medicare. It was secured last week by U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, when the bill was being considered by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over SCHIP. He, along with U.S. Reps. Jim McDermott, Norm Dicks, Adam Smith, Brian Baird and Rick Larsen, then pressed House leadership to keep the Washington state fix in the bill that was considered on the House floor today.
“It’s been an uphill battle to end this injustice,” said Inslee. “The feds shouldn’t have shortchanged kids in Washington when SCHIP was set up a decade ago.”
The bill passed 225 to 204, no thanks to Reichert and the rest of our Republican delegation, who all voted against the interests of Washington state, and with their President Bush. Keep this vote in mind next year when our editorialists laud Reichert for his “conscience-driven independent streak.”
Maybe if we sent home the entire illegal immigrant population we could afford this type of legation in this state. Not to worry the Governor depends on these folks to get her-self elective into the Governors mansion next time. The Socialist Democrats will never fix King County voters reservation problem. Yep many more years of ballot box stuffing to keep the Social Democrats in power.
Until now, Washington and 10 other states were penalized for expanding health insurance coverage to children in families with incomes just over the poverty line before the popular State Children’s Insurance Plan (SCHIP) was enacted in 1997. Since enactment, they’ve had to fight every few years to spend even a fraction of unused federal funds to cover children at this income level. States that didn’t cover these children a decade ago have had no such limitation on the use of federal SCHIP funds.
Yeah, but did we really expect hairspray and jesus-girl to vote for this?
Like you said in the last paragraph the important thing is to remember this and to use it to hit back when people start talk all glowy about them.
Lynne Varner wrote about this very bill. Varner is on the Times’ Ed Board. Is she going to overlook Reichert’s vote against children’s health insurance? Who knows…
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....nne01.html
SCHIP was passed in 1997. Incidentally, by a firmly Republican controlled Congress — even though this was a Clinton initiative and the Democrats in Congress were certainly the most enthusiastic supporters of SCHIP.
In 1997, Republicans controlled 6 out of the 9 U.S. House seats from Washington, and Slade Gorton was one of our U.S. Senators. Obviously, the Republicans in our congressional delegation did a really screwed up job of looking after our state’s interests, when SCHIP was originally enacted. Even if they didn’t favor SCHIP in the first place, they should have made sure Washington was fairly treated in how the program was administered.
And how did the Sharif justify this?
Yes the hairdo was more interested in sucking the cock of the GOP leadership than looking out for children. He’s gonna have a hard time selling this lie. Even the righties recognize his problem here and they NEVER face the truth.
Maria Cantwell explained the inequity against our state in SCHIP in a prepared statement back on October 10, 2002:
“Five years ago, Congress created a new $40 billion state grant program to provide health insurance to low-income, uninsured children who live in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance. In most states, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) has been extremely successful. Nearly one million children gained coverage each year through SCHIP and, by December 2001, 3.5 million children were enrolled in the program.
Unfortunately, however, not all states have been able to participate in this success – and perversely, these are the states that had taken bold initiatives by expanding their Medicaid programs to cover low-income children at higher levels of poverty. Sadly, the recession and high unemployment means that the health insurance coverage we do have for children, pregnant women, and low-income individuals is in jeopardy due to state budget crises.
Washington state has been a leader in providing health insurance to our constituents. We have long provided optional coverage to Medicaid populations and began covering children up to 200 percent of poverty in 1993 – three years before Congress passed SCHIP
When SCHIP was enacted in 1997, most states were prohibited from using the new funding for already covered populations. This flaw made it difficult for Washington to access the money and essentially penalized the few states that had led the nation on expanding coverage for kids. This means that my state only receives the enhanced SCHIP matching dollars for covering kids between 200 and 250 percent of the federal poverty level. Washington has been able to use less than four percent of the funding the federal government gave us for SCHIP.
Today, Washington has the highest unemployment in the country, an enormous budget deficit, and may need to cut as many as 150,000 kids from the Medicaid roles. Because it is penalized by SCHIP rules and cannot use funds like other states, Washington state is sending $95 million back to the federal treasury or to other states. This defies common sense, and I do not believe that innovative states should be penalized for having expanded coverage to children before the enactment of SCHIP.”
http://cantwell.senate.gov/new.....5&
It is a good thing that Mike McSafeco didn’t get elected last fall.
‘Keep this vote in mind next year when our editorialists laud Reichert for his “conscience-driven independent streak.”’
As we learned last year, Mr. Blethen’s employees on his editorial page must toe his line on all of the issues, even if they must humiliate themselves to keep paying their bills. So long as Rep. Reichert supports the maintenance of plutocracy, he’ll have The Bothell Times’ endorsement. (Of course, he doesn’t represent Bothell, now, does he?)
Reichert and the Repugnicans have been waging war on US citizens for several years now. They just never properly declared war on us, so we didn’t know if it was a true war or not.
Their vote against health care for children (while giving billions in no-bid contract and tax “incentives” to their buddies at Halliburton, Exxon, etc) should be considered the Republicans formal declaration of war against us.
Reichert is just another GOP doucebag and frankly a very mentally ill in-human being!
Once again Assie Voice and his minions only look at one part of HR 3162. HR 3162 destroys the prenatal care initiative from 2002, when Bush’s DHHS issued a new regulation to allow states with many poor residents to cover pregnant mothers and their unborn babies under the SCHIP program.
This DHHS regulation directive recognized both mother and unborn child as patients in a pregnancy. Yet Moonbat!s can’t accept a unborn child as a patient because they like abortions. 5.4 million aborted since the start of the Iraq War.
So what did the Moonbats do? They killed unborn child regulation so only the pregnant mother receives coverage, not the unborn baby.
So Pennsylvania Republican Congressman Joe Pitts, attempted to fix the HR 3162 bill problem during the Energy and Commerce Committee meeting bill review but pro-abortion Moonbat!s killed the meeting before Joe could offer his amendment.
Hmmm…?
Sumtin else lost by ASSie Voice and his minions on HR 3162 that makes it suck as a bill:
The bill would also stop payments for home oxygen equipment rentals at 13 months. So one of my close relatives would have to pay for expensive oxygen equipment or die. I can’t wait for the latest Stupidman comment.
Hmmm…?
And another thing lost on ASSie Voice and his minions is the additional $75 billion in cost. I thought Moonbat!s like Nancy Pelosi said the Moonbat! led congress would be frugal and fiscally improved?
ASSie Voice and his minions forgot to mention the bill also cuts diagnostic imaging costs for unborn children. So if a poor mother feels pain during her pregnancy, Moonbat!s don’t care.
ASSie Voice and his minions forgot to tell you if you broke your leg or arm during an accident, this bill reduces by 50% the number of CT or PT or X-rays taken to determine the extent of the break. I can see it now, Stupidman gets his shrunken cranial orifice cracked in an industrial accident… he runs into an open door while jerking off and his single cell amoeba brain falls out. Well the doctors can’t fix his crack due to this bill.
Do the ASSie Voice minions of the NorthWest Division of Lunatic Moonbat!s actually read the stuff he links too or just comment cuz they want their words in screen pixels?
I bet these are the reasons Reichert voted against it Assie Voice not due to the WA State provision. Butt keep up the great partisan work on a lousy bill that hurts more Americans in the long run than it fixes a specific problem WA State.
Winston Smith said only half-truths in post #10 08/01/2007 at 11:29 pm:
Winston, you forgot Moonbat! Senator Dianne Feinstein and how she voted against us too. She led the charge for $$$ Billions of no-bid contracts for her husband Richard C. Blum.
Here is a take on HR 3162 from the Cheryl Smith and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D. from the Heritage Foundation :
http://www.heritage.org/Resear.....wm1580.cfm
If you have private medical insurance, it undermines it!
Yes the Heritage Foundation – the right wing shit tank founded by dead Bible-thumper Jerry Fallwrong – oh yes, like I’d believe ANYTHING those fucking inbred traitors had to say…
Puffybutt – at least we start to realize that there’s a reason for your lack of intelligent posting – you read from the most right wing, extreme sites written by complete wingnut, whackjobs.
Of course what can you expect from a muslim-marrying traitor who sucks dick behind the Port Orchard bowling alley?
Oh and of course I forgot – the fact that your mother and father were brother and sister hasn’t helped you much has it?
How’s that being banned thing working out for you?
Ahhh Yes Stupidman once again showing his TRUE Colors of hatred. Too bad he was dropped on his head as a baby!
Tell me Stupidman, where is the Port ORchard Bowling Alley?
Regarding the ban; Assie Voice and his minions have not produced the NINE posts to date! Maybe you know where they went since you head is up Assie Voice’s ASS all day long!
Reichert hates children. Keep saying it until November 2008.
Puddy
You’re funny. You may be right about the bill’s contents; I have not yet investigated. But your specifics about details of the bill are POLITICALLY very weak arguments compared to “Reichert doesn’t care about kids.” This is about Dave and Dave alone. Did he offer amendments to correct the elements you mention? No? I didn’t think so.
Ahhh Stupidman, where does it say Jerry Falwell founded the Heritage Foundation? Citation? URL?
I call BULLSHITTIUM!
And… as I remember, Assie Voice has used the Heritage Foundation in a blog entry or two. So if it’s good enough for him, you must be marching to the echo chamber beat within that vacuous chamber called your cranial orifice!
Daddy Love: You and the Assie Voice minions love to take a single issue and ply it on.
I can say Jay Islee hates Americans with health insurance.
I can say Adam smith hates Americans who need specific CT scans.
I can say Norm Dicks hates Americans who are poor pregnant women and need ultrasound scans on their babies in the womb.
See my point? oops… no you can’t. You are a Moonbat!
Again, Puddy is dissembling. One wonders when it will stop (likely about the time when Puddy stops looking for facts in opinion pieces).
Puddy’s wording with respect to home oxygen equipment rental would lead one to believe that HR 3162 imposes a limit where none existed before. In fact, what HR 3162 does is reduce the time of rental coverage from 36 months to 13 months.
Secondly, changing the time of rental coverage doesn’t affect reimbursement for equipment purchase. Puddy, for some reason, leaves this fact out of the discussion as well. Why?
As if that weren’t enough, Puddy then complains about the costs of the bill. Hm… First it cuts too much, then it costs too much. Oh, and then it cuts too much again, because it limits coverage for certain diagnostic imaging (which, by the way, you can’t find in the summary posted on the House Ways and Means committee’s web site). Note that the bill expands coverage for pregnant women in a number of other ways.
The argument of Puddy and Republican minions can be summed up as: caring about children is bad, because it means we’d have to take come care away from people who aren’t children any more.
Puffybutt prove Falwell DIDN’T start the Heritage Foundation.
Thought so you cum-drunk bitch.
your wife says hi
Don Joe: No I don’t put forth that argument. And Don Joe I didn’t just go to opinion pieces. I actually went to the congressmen who were involved. Wow what a concept Don Joe!
It expands certain pregnant women coverage while removing other coverage. And… amazingly Don Joe doesn’t touch; the unborn baby coverage is REMOVED! Why do Moonbat!s hate unborn babies Don Joe?
Regarding the oxygen needs, the cost of the equipment is cheap vs the recurring oxygen cost. Usually people needing oxygen pay at least $50 per refill unless they have a refilling machine. Since the costs are the same why did I need to add that to the conversation? It’s a wash! DUH!
Stupidman: I didn’t put forth the argument. You did Stupidman.
I don’t have to prove it. You do Stupidman.
You put forth the argument. I know who started the Heritage Foundation and you don’t.
Keep on being stupid Stupidman!
If my wife says hi where is she RIGHT NOW Stupidman.
Waaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa
26 That’s curious. Oxygen should be dirt cheap, and generally is when it’s being sold to welders and other industrial users. Someone must be tacking on a substantial cost to assure it’s “medical grade”.
Also, I’ve had a few friends in recent years who required oxygen at home, and the equipment appears to have become a lot more complicated that a little green tank with a regulator and a simple plastic mask. Somehow I’m also willing to bet that most medical coverage plans, be they private or public, won’t pay to purchase the gear, only to rent it for some period of time, no doubt long enough for the rent to exceed the purchase price, but likely not as long as someone with chronic COPD or emphysema is likely to need it.
The Heritage Foundation was started with a donation from Joseph Coors, and in recent years has received considerable support from Richard Mellon Scaife and the owners of Amway.
Exactly Art Fart.
Idiot Savant Stupidman is as always Stupidman. If he could read and process simple sentences, he would have known Jerry Falwell was only FRIENDS with the Heritage Foundation.
Hence his name is Stupidman!
Art Fart: I too have a close relative with COPD and will for the rest of their lives need oxygen. When they received their bill they gasped (collectively and figuratively)!
Puddy,
I pointed out that you were dissembling. That has nothing to do with actually constructing a coherent argument, and when you actually do managed to construct a coherent argument, I’ll commend you for it (though I won’t hold my breath waiting).
What I asked, and you’ve still failed to answer, is why, if you are so well informed, you chose to leave out salient facts in your original comment? So you now claim that you want to the congresscritters involved, and asked them? Why not go to the text of the bill itself, or is reading just not one of your strong suits?
Unfortunately this bill, like many things the federal government does, has grown beyond its original intent. Buried within the 500 pages of this $132.6 billion dollar bill are provisions that will hurt families, individuals and seniors.
It is deeply concerning that a provision in this bill would force rural, small hospitals to close. If these rural hospitals shut down, both young and old people will be left without any local access to health care.
The bill cuts $193 billion in senior Medicare benefits. Many seniors would loose their health care provided by Medicare Advantage Plans. Most of these seniors will now be forced to pay for prescription drugs out-of-pocket, face higher premiums, and have a hard time finding a primary care physician.
This bill includes cuts to inpatient care, inpatient rehabilitation services, oxygen services, skilled nursing facilities and home health care services.
Expanded health care for children is important, but this is not the right approach.