Kucinich: SCHIP bill fails to provide health coverage for legal immigrant children

First of all, let me say upfront that I'm a big fan of Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH). Of all the Dems running for president, his words resonate with me the most. It's a shame that he is not taken more seriously as a candidate (but that's a whole other article which I'll be writing soon).

That said, I've got a moral dilemma.

On Thursday, Kucinich was one of the 273 House members who voted to override Bush's veto of the SCHIP bill that would provide health care insurance to uninsured children. No surprise there.

But then I learned that Kucinich had voted against SCHIP when it originally passed the House back on September 25.

Why? Because the bill did not include coverage for legal immigrant children.

OK, so the bill was inadequate, and that's wrong. No child should have to suffer in this country from lack of health care. Whatever the parents' situation might be, we as a society should not make any innocent child pay the price.

As much as I despise any kind of discrimination, wouldn't it be better to cover some children rather than none (and then follow up later to get the rest of them covered)?

It's a tough one.

Anyway, the following is a statement on the issue, as posted on Kucinich's website:

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Kucinich: SCHIP Bill Fails To Provide Health Coverage For Legal Immigrant Children

Washington, Sep 25 - Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), issued the following statement after voting against the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) conference report today:

"I cannot support legislation which extends health coverage to some children while openly denying it to other children," Kucinich said. "This legislation is woefully inadequate: and I will not support it.

"Legal immigrant children deserve the same quality health care as other children receive. It is Congress' responsibility to address the main difficulties that prevent legal immigrant children from gaining access to health care. Today, we did exactly the opposite.

"HR 676 guarantees full health care coverage for all children. When considering a universal health care proposal, HR 676, the Medicare for All bill, is the only health care plan that addresses three important issues: quality, accessibility, and cost. HR 676 stands alone in an increasingly crowded field of efforts to provide health care coverage to all," Kucinich said.

Kucinich voted for the original House-passed version of the bill because it contained language to grant health coverage for legal immigrant children. However, in today’s bill, this language was omitted.