Bush-Backed Veto of Children’s Health Bill ‘Callous’
18th October 2007
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Some 4 million children lost a chance to have health care coverage when the House voted 273-156 this morning and failed to overturn President Bush's veto of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) renewal. It would have taken a two-thirds majority to override Bush's veto.
The bill—passed by large majorities in the U.S. House and Senate—would have funded the program for five years and covered the 6 million children already enrolled, plus an additional 4 million uninsured children whose families cannot afford the skyrocketing cost of private health insurance. Overall, some 9 million children in the nation do not have heath insurance.
The Republicans' anti-SCHIP campaign was marked by "misconceptions, half truths and down right lies," says Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.). Bush and his backers painted the vetoed bill as a step toward "socialized medicine" and "government-run" health care that would undermine the private insurance industry and even allow families making as much as $83,000 a year to enroll their children in SCHIP.