Deconstructing the SCHIP debate

I posted this at True North yesterday, but I forgot to post it here. It must be old age setting in!

Michele Bachmann fires back at her critics on the SCHIP debate in today's Star Tribune. In it she lays out the glaring flaws in the bill that the many critics of the legislation have been trying to get past the "gatekeepers" in the media.

Under the bill passed by Congress and vetoed by the president, SCHIP dollars could be used to cover childless adults and more-affluent families -- in some cases, households earning up to $83,000 per year. It also changes current law to make it easier for illegal immigrants to get SCHIP funds.
A Congressional Budget Office study shows that more than 77 percent of children affected by this expansion already have personal, private health insurance. So why create an incentive that pushes kids out of private insurance into a government-run
program, rather than focusing on low-income, uninsured children?
Worse, this legislation makes SCHIP financially unstable. In order to appear fiscally sound, it gives children health insurance for five years, then cuts SCHIP funding by
nearly 80 percent -- a classic bait and switch that will cause millions of American children to lose their health coverage.
And what are the taxpayers getting in return? According to the CBO, the bill will lead to only 800,000 eligible-but-unenrolled children being enrolled in SCHIP by 2012. The sad fact is that it would be cheaper to give each of these kids $72,000 than it would be to enact this bill, and it would probably show healthier results.

The other "lie" that Michele puts to rest is that the Republicans in Congress don't "care" about the children.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, several million SCHIP-eligible children are
uninsured. Surely, children in need should have the health insurance promised to
them before SCHIP is expanded further up the income ladder or before more of the
program's limited resources are used for adults.
Here's my idea: Let's cover the kids first. Let's focus on children in need who don't have access to health insurance and fund SCHIP as it was meant to be. I've publicly supported legislation that would accomplish these goals and keep SCHIP moving forward to help those it was intended to help.

Brava Rep. Bachmann. Brava.....it nice to see a Republican standing up to the attack dogs in this debate.