CA: Insure every child - Details are emerging, but governor is on the right path.

Long Beach Press-Telegram ^ | 1/5/07 | Editorial

[NormsRevenge]

We share Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's hope to insure California's kids. Whether they are in this nation illegally or not, minors deserve coverage for this reason alone: They're children.

Denying youngsters true access to the health care system - not just swelling emergency rooms - because of decisions made by their parents is cruel. And costly. Preventive care, paid by that proverbial ounce, is less expensive than emergency care paid in pounds of taxpayer flesh.

We understand that some of the uninsured are here illegally, and that's wrong, but most of the time immigration decisions are made for them by their parents. They are not always here by choice, but they're here.

The true character of a society is a reflection of how it treats its innocents, and California's reflection is blemished by an estimated 763,000 uninsured youngsters.

While we agree with the spirit of Schwarzenegger's plan, we are not ready to endorse the funding mechanisms just yet, as they will be released in detail with the governor's overall health care plan on Monday. But in general we support redirecting existing taxpayer money to feed the proposed, $400 million system, rather than saddling businesses or individuals with higher taxes or new fees.

Even so, the governor should face some dissent from his own party. Republicans appear poised to oppose providing care to illegal immigrants. Though arguments against insuring the children of illegal aliens aren't unfounded - coverage is yet another "reward" for those who sneak into the United States - the pull of economic opportunity in California is strong enough as it is.

Schwarzenegger's proposal wouldn't create new incentives to cross the border. There are enough already: work, shelter, food, opportunity, reuniting with family. Add in lax immigration laws and insuring children doesn't even come into the equation.

And since immigrants and their children are here anyway, consider the benefits of health coverage. Insurance would increase regular checkups, which means youths would be more likely to see doctors before ailments become truly serious, and reduce the likelihood of diseases spreading.

Teens could also discuss the most private matters in confidence with their doctors, including how to prevent pregnancy, get prenatal care, treat venereal diseases and receive mental health care for maladies prevalent in their age group like depression and Attention Deficit Disorder.

Children need to talk with their doctors in confidence, just like everyone else.

Insuring minors is also less expensive than covering adults, since they generally avoid the more serious illnesses that come with age. But this is not just a financial issue; it's a moral one. Not caring for children, no matter where they were born, is inhumane.

California still has enough heart, and money, to treat all of its children.

[NormsRevenge]

.. and then you have stuff like this.

It seems all you need to do is crawl across the boarder, drop the baby, and waaa laaaa.. the Nanny State will provide.

[sheana]

Well I say we just provide healthcare to all the world's childern......afterall they ARE children and deserve it!

Would probably be cheaper than what we are doing now.

(in case you didn't notice.....extreme sarcasm)

[Screamname]

This is completely insane. Providing health care for illegals is providing healthcare for the entire world, because an illegal could be from any country. Arnold gets my vote for biggest RINO of the year, and the year has just started. Nobody could beat this.

[.cnI redruM]

>>>>Whether they are in this nation illegally or not, minors deserve coverage for this reason alone: They're children.

The thinking that launched 1 million stupidities.

[Vn_survivor_67-68]

763,000 uninsured youngsters.
proposed, $400 million system


$524 a copy ain't gonna buy squat.....this is a pig in a poke, so just wait till it comes around again

[GVnana]

redirecting existing taxpayer money to feed the proposed, $400 million system, rather than saddling businesses or individuals with higher taxes or new fees

I just about threw-up when I heard the new reports about "insuring all CA children". I'm holding off on judgment 'tho until I see what this is really all about.

Right now, any illegal gets free health care in CA hospitals, and it's bankrupting some of them.

Ain't the way it should be, but the way it is.

[Wuli]

How is it that the liers cannot fail to spell "uninsured" as "untreated" when in fact no one is left "untreated", insured or not. And, since they are asking the tax payers to pay for it all anyway, then which is really cheaper and more effective?

Telling the uninsured they can now run to the doctor any time they get the sniffles, and ask for every possible diagnosis for their sniffles, because now they are "insured" (by us) or treating them when needed as we do now?

Everyone has all the compassion in the world for people who illegally enter this country and no compassion at all for the taxpaying citizens and legal residents already here.

Every bit of extra "compassion" for illegals is a slap in the face and a dishonor to all the legal immigrants who spent years of hardship, legal hardship playing by the rules and waiting for their bureaucratic turn at citizenship.

What both parties want to do for illegals is a disgrace to all legal immigrants.

And the results? All the overseas relatives of the millions and millions of legal immigrants, who are patiently waiting their turn in line to join their families here are being told they are fools to keep waiting; they might as well just join the illegal invasion because the American politicians are not going to do anything against them in the end.

[NormsRevenge]

ever since Clinton 'defined' IS, I hate seeing that word used by some as it IS. :-)

Unfortunately, the folks on the left are sneaky, slick, self-serving, and in power, sadly, with a lot of votes fro folks mon the right who got suckered.


As usual, it will have to get a lot worse before they come to their senses, if they ever do.

[calcowgirl]

From John Myers, <i>Capital Notes</i>:

Governor's Health Plan: New Incentives

For weeks, Governor Schwarzenegger and his advisers have hinted that his soon-to-be-announced health care reforms will center on what he calls "shared responsibility" by everyone. And that certainly seems to be true in some of the first details to emerge about his proposal.

According to new information from the governor's administration, the Schwarzenegger health care plan will require that employers offer pre-tax savings accounts to help pay for health insurance. These accounts, which are authorized under federal tax code, are currently optional for employers. The governor would require all California businesses to offer them. The money is deducted from an employee's pre-tax paycheck-- if they want to participate-- and placed into a separate account to help defray medical costs.

What's unusual about these so-called "Section 125" plans (named for IRS tax code) is that they are not contingent on actual health coverage. In other words, they will be available to a worker even if his or her employer doesn't offer health insurance.

Meanwhile, the governor will also propose the creation of "Healthy Action Programs." These programs would be offered through both state-run and private insurance plans, and would reward people who take advantage of preventative health programs, like smoking cessation classes and weight reduction. The incentives, according to the administration, could range from health club memberships to possible lower insurance premiums.

This afternoon, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez said the governor's proposals not only "make sense," but are similar to ones he made in his own health care reform package last month.

Expect to hear much more about health care both in the governor's inaugural address tomorrow, and next week when the governor unveils his complete proposal.

 

[GVnana]

Well, dammit. I'm not going to let the Clintoon rob me of language, no matter how hard he tried! :)

[socialismisinsidious]

Being done in PA where Slick Eddie calls it the "Cover All Kids" program. The CHIPS program started out years ago to cover only low income kids and now Ed has expanded it to cover all kids defined: coverage to any child who needs health care insurance. Soon the idiots will be surprised when hordes of parents begin dropping their kid's private health insurance, therefore making a need.

Make no mistake this is just a root for socialized medicine. Howard Dean was spouting the same crap..health care for the children. Each state will implement its own child program and the sheeple will applaud until we are all under government run health care.

After all, socialism is insidious.

[phillyfanatic]

This children ploy is always the Left's agenda. This plan will DRAW even more illegals to Ca. and to other state gov's who want to be loved and not called a racist. Drop the kid off as one wag wrote and hoohah, we have a new family for our taxpayers to support. Where is Mexico's responsibility in all of this? Where is the responsibility of all Central And South American states? Why is it always mandatory that taxpayers pick up the non-productives' life as if that is just what humanitarians always do? Become legal, insure the kids! Illegal, sorry, you have broken the law and must go back to your own country to bet the largess! But, our pols will not do it. The media will not have it and any dissent will get this: Boy, are you a horrid Christian!

[rscully]

Well, since they seem so hell-bent on providing for "the children", what about the children of the hard-working, legally-there parents of California who struggle day in and day out to provide for thier own families? What about the working California mom who'd like to stay home and raise her own children but can't because she has to work in order to afford the cost of living in California and she has to do her part to support the cost of paying for California's illegal population? I guess those children don't count.

This article did have one thing right, however. Adults making foolish decisions do have a direct effect on thier children. That includes the bleeding heart/empty brain liberal voter who believes that California can continue to support the illegal population without causing a financial catastrophy. That includes a governor who is losing his backbone and brain cells.

[Dan Evans]

I knew this guy who was sharing a house with a few other friends. One day they noticed that they seemed to have a lot of mice. They would put out mousetraps and catch some of them but the population of mice just seemed to grown and grow.

Then they found out why. One of the roomates had been feeding mice in the space under the stairway. He was such a compassionate person that he felt a need to care for these furry little creatures.

They threw him out.

[DCPatriot]

It's brilliant political strategy, IMO.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Whether they are in this nation illegally or not, minors deserve coverage for this reason alone: They're children.

And, of course, when they turn 18, it would be unfair to just abruptly cut them off. ;)

[BenLurkin]

"Right path"

They mean the path which is paved with good intentions.

[SmartAZ]

How come no barf alert on this crap?

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

To Populate is to Govern

[brytlea]

And after all, it's not the children's fault their parents had them in a foreign country!
susie