Still Can't Get It Right !

For over fifty years now the government has known that
the post war baby boomers were going to mean increases needed
in health related areas and now that the time nears politicians want
to pit young against old in who will get and who will not in health
care. Things don't have to be this way where one generation
versus another. This is unexceptiable and the American people
should not bow down to fence straddling politics. Read the article
below. Feel free to comment not only here but to your local
congressman. Health care in this country should be available to
everyone!


The Democratic Congress, eager to do something that would be popular with voters, is moving to provide healthcare coverage to millions of uninsured children this year, but there's a catch: Senior citizens enrolled in a popular Medicare program may have to help pay the bill.That could turn what started as a feel-good plan to help the children of the working poor into a tricky exercise in shifting generational burdens.

Such trade-offs may soon become a central theme of American politics, experts say, because the federal deficit is large and the bills for supporting baby boomers in retirement are about to start coming due."The budget squeeze is on, and in some ways this is the first salvo," said Adam Carasso, an analyst at the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan policy research group in Washington. "It's getting to the point where you are going to have to ask the dreaded question:

Is it children or the elderly?"He added, "The way we have allocated our spending, it's coming down to an either-or proposition."Lawmakers want to provide coverage to as many as 6 million of an estimated 9 million uninsured children, by increasing federal spending as much as $60 billion over the next five years. But budget rules designed to curb the deficit require new expenditures to be offset by tax increases or cuts in programs.To help meet the cost, Congress is considering trimming payments to Medicare managed-care plans.

The privately run alternatives to traditional programs serve about 8 million senior citizens, including those in health maintenance organizations. If funding is reduced, the plans may cut dental, vision and other benefits.The new funding for children would be used to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, as well as Medicaid. Known as Medi-Cal in California, Medicaid provides coverage for the poor. SCHIP is called Healthy Families in California, and serves children in low- to moderate-income working families.Expanding the programs could help people like 5-year-old Kayla Cervantes of East Los Angeles, a second-generation Californian who has had no health insurance for about half of her life.

Her parents make too much money to qualify for insurance through SCHIP and other government programs, but not enough to afford private coverage.Their backup plan if Kayla gets sick is to take her to a doctor in Mexico, where they have relatives.Maria Rosales, Kayla's mother, said her husband paid $600 a month at one point for family coverage through his employer. (The company pays only for the father's insurance.)

"We can afford about $200 a month," Rosales said. "He had to cancel it."When Kayla caught a bad cold in December, with a cough that wouldn't let her rest at night and a fever that hit 102 degrees, the family went to the doctor in Mexico. It cost about $40 for an examination and prescription antibiotics."Today she can play with her friends, but anything can happen," Rosales said. "She could fall, and that would be a big bill."





This Article Continues Here:





Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/