I still like John Kerry. I am not saying he was my top choice for President. I was certainly sad that he lost. But I am really glad that he is going around the country speaking about his "Kid's Come First" act, which is to provide health care to uninsured children.
Kerry was in Minnesota yesterday. Here a bit from the Star Tribune.
"We've got to get mad," said the Massachusetts Democrat, who won Minnesota but lost the national presidential race. "We've got to get organized and go out there and do what's right for the children in America."
http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/5384071.html
Kerry is dead-on right.
We need to get mad. The American public needs to get mad. George Bush can run around the country spreading lies about the Social Security crisis. The least we can do his help John Kerry in his tour around the country speaking about the real crisis--the healthcare crisis.
Casting the choices in moral terms, Kerry urged the Minnesotans to become "citizen co-sponsors" of a bill he has dubbed the Kids First Act. It would form a state-federal partnership to provide health coverage to 11 million children who currently go without. The costs could be covered by rolling back Bush's tax cuts for Americans who earn more than $300,000 a year, Kerry said.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/5384071.html
If you have not become a co-sponsor yet of the bill, here is a link if you would like to do so.
http://www.johnkerry.com/features/kidsfirst.html
Even if the children are fortunate enough to be born into a family with parents who have jobs, many employers are no longer offering health insurance. My job does not. I have insurance through my husband, which I feel very grateful to have.
Employer-based health insurance is bad for children because, as insurance costs rise, businesses cut their coverage of employee children.
In 1980, the majority of employers at medium-to-large companies paid 100% of employee family health insurance costs. 5 Today, less than one-quarter do. 6
One in four workers today has no access to employment-based family health coverage, at any price. 8
http://www.amsa.org/cph/CHIPfact.cfm
We cannot just tell the parents of these children to find better jobs that offer health insurance. We need to protect the children. As a country, we certainly have the money. As a society we will end up spending money on these children one way or the other. How much better to spend it on prevention and education than on fixing problems we could have avoided!
Many reasons account for children's continued lack of enrollment in health insurance programs. In some states, eligibility standards are below 200% of poverty, leaving some near-poor children without access to affordable health insurance. In other states, many uninsured children are noncitizens who are not eligible for Medicaid under current federal law. Yet another reason children are not getting health insurance is the lack of outreach to people who are poverty-striken to help them get their children the needed health care. The bureaucratic process of all the paper work needed to enroll also affects the number of children receiving care.
Please support this bill. It may not pass this year or next. But if we speak out about the healthcare crisis enough, we may actually be heard.