President Bush vetoed a $35 billion expansion to a federal children’s health insurance program Wednesday, outraging critics and prompting Democrats to vow support for overturning the veto.
The bill would have added $35 billion to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which helps pay for health coverage for children whose families are above the poverty line but cannot afford to purchase private health insurance.
Bush said the expansion, which likely would have added just over 4 million children to the program, amounted to socializing health care.
“I believe in private medicine, not the federal government running the health care system,” he said.
But Sarah Kemble, a pediatric resident at UCLA’s Mattel Children’s Hospital, which staged a rally in support of the SCHIP expansion on Tuesday, called that statement a misrepresentation of the bill.
“This is one of the best government-sponsored health programs, (but) it’s not government-run,” she said.
Democrats vowed to fight to override the veto, which would require them to muster a two-thirds majority vote in favor of the bill in both houses of Congress.
The bill cleared the Senate 67-29 last week, just over the two-thirds mark, but passed the House 265-159, meaning Democrats will need to swing 25 votes in order to overturn Bush’s decision.
Top Democrats, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said they would try to persuade Republican congresspeople to change their votes.
“It’s going to be a hard vote for Republicans,” Pelosi said.
If the veto is not overturned, it could have serious effects on health care in California, experts said.
Kemble said while the veto will not likely stop hospitals from treating children who need immediate care, it could jeopardize doctors’ ability to get children all the care they need.
“I would have much more limited options,” she said, adding that doctors would not be able to get certain types of preventative care for uninsured children. “(At Mattel) we see every day what kind of impact this has on the children that we serve.”
And Charlotte Neumann, a professor at the UCLA School of Public Health who specializes in child health policy, said if children do not receive sufficient preventative care when they are young, it could create long-term problems for the health care system.
“You have a future generation of kids who are going to grow up with asthma, with diabetes. There are so many things that kids get that aren’t going to be treated,” she said.
Not expanding the program could lead to short-term problems as well, Neumann added.
“The emergency rooms may get packed,” she said.
But Bush defended his decision, expressing concern that the expansion could have allowed children from middle-class families to register for the program, which he said was not the original purpose of SCHIP.
Bush said he believes low-income families should be the ones to benefit from SCHIP, and added he would be willing to authorize a smaller sum of money to include more poor children in the program.
Kemble said doctors from Mattel plan to continue contacting elected officials in the hope of reversing the veto.
“We’re of course disappointed,” she said. “We just hope the House takes it into their hands to overturn this. However the issue has been politicized, the fundamental fact remains that we see every day why children need this health care.”
With reports from Bruin wire services.