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Some
thoughts on the veto of the SCHIP Act of 2007
PRAISED BE JESUS
CHRIST!
(Now and Forever)
In the context of the thousands who gathered in Washington to
demonstrate against abortion on Jan. 22, I share an alert about how
those who insist that the right to life does not extend to the unborn
have a way of wiggling their views into a multiplicity of venues.
Perhaps you remember
that in the closing weeks of 2007, President Bush was roundly chastised
for vetoing HR 3963, the “State Children’s Health Insurance Program
Reauthorization Act of 2007,” otherwise referred to as SCHIP.
In his veto message
to Congress, the president explained “that the purpose of the State
Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) was to help low-income
children whose families were struggling, but did not qualify for
Medicaid, to get the health-care coverage that they needed … I continue
to stand ready to work with the leaders of the Congress, on a bipartisan
basis, to reauthorize the SCHIP program in a way that puts poor children
first; moves adults out of a program meant for children; and does not
abandon the bipartisan tradition that marked the original enactment of
the SCHIP program.”
SCHIP will be
reauthorized. When and by whom it will be reauthorized is the question.
Will it be during the early days of 2008, just before the federal
elections, or under a new administration in 2009? Time will tell.
The SCHIP program was
created in 1997 in a context of welfare reform. The concept was simple.
Instead of spending federal money on the poor from Washington, money
would be sent in block grants to the states. This approach was judged to
be more efficient and would guarantee that more of the money would
actually reach needy people. Less would be spent on middle men and red
tape. Distributed by the states, SCHIP money was to be spent providing
health care to children whose parents were above the poverty line and
therefore didn’t qualify for Medicaid, yet couldn’t afford health care.
Reaction to the veto
pretty much was: How dare the president veto the continuation of such a
program? The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB),
joined by Catholic Charities USA and the Catholic Health Association,
had been part of the chorus urging Congress to expand health-care
funding while raising concerns over proposed cuts to the Medicaid and
Medicare programs.
Could there be more
to this incident than meets the eye?
In 2005, leadership
in Congress passed to the Democrats. Leadership decided to make two
significant changes in the SCHIP program. Lawmakers decided to change
the definition of “children.” The previous SCHIP program defined
children as anyone “from conception to age 19.” That meant that
pre-natal care was available to pregnant women. The new Congress removed
that definition. They also added “pregnancy services” to the bill. As a
result, money could now end up in the paycheck of an abortionist in at
least 17 states, including Indiana. So the initial version of SCHIP used
language that provided for the rights of unborn children. The revised
version reversed that, thereby circumventing long-standing federal
policies against taxpayer-funded abortions.
Between 1998 and
2007, $48 billion was allocated to the State Children’s Health Insurance
Program with a basic stipulation that covered services would include
physician and hospital care, laboratory, X-ray services, well-child care
and immunizations. The major goal of the program had been to make health
care affordable to low-income families.
Cometh now the
Christus Medicus Foundation. In its determination to educate lawmakers,
political candidates and religious organizations about the need for the
reform of SCHIP, Christus Medicus has issued an alert that millions of
dollars from SCHIP could be channeled into the promotion of
confidential family planning services that include sterilization,
contraception and abortion. It warns that teenage females could be
signed up for the SCHIP program by schools, family planning services and
social service organizations and given contraceptives and abortions
without their parents’ knowledge or consent. If accurate, this means
that these services would be subsidized by tax dollars.
While the president’s
veto message to Congress stressed that he remains ready to “work with
the leaders of the Congress, on a bipartisan basis, to reauthorize the
SCHIP program,” the Christus Medicus Foundation is suggesting what is
needed is a reform for the SCHIP program at either the federal or
state levels to remove coverage of contraception, sterilization and
abortion.
An editorial in the
National Catholic Register observed that “the old version of
SCHIP honored our nation’s long-standing federal policies against
taxpayer-funded abortions. The new version of SCHIP makes an end-run
around those policies. The old version of SCHIP assured that as much of
our welfare expenditures as possible actually helped serve poor
children. The new version insures that as much of our taxpayer money as
currently possible goes to fund abortions. The old version of SCHIP had
broad-based bipartisan support and the support of the U.S. bishops. The
new version has the support of Planned Parenthood.”
Tracking legislation
and its impact is no easy task. This, however, has caught my eye.
The Christus Medicus
Foundation calls on pro-life, pro-family, health care and religious
leaders to support morally acceptable changes to the SCHIP program. In
doing so, they stress that eliminating existing medical coverage for
unborn children is contrary to the very intent of SCHIP and the
principles espoused by pro-life/pro-family health care and religious
leaders. Christus Medicus points out that mandating confidential
coverage for family planning services in children’s health care
(abortions, sterilizations, contraceptives) is contrary to Catholic
principles and the natural moral law. And, the foundation alerts that
expanding the definition of “child” beyond 19 years of age, adding
adults to the coverage, raising the federal poverty level above 200
percent, and forcing taxpayers to fund these changes are governmental
interventions in direct contradiction to Catholic teaching on subsidiary
and/or the natural law.
Michael O’Dea of the
Christus Medicus Foundation opines that Catholics should challenge the
new family planning measure within the SCHIP reauthorization bills that
come before Congress. “I don’t believe that the majority of Americans
want to subsidize family planning, abortion, contraception, sterility
and faulty procedures for children in a health plan.”
The Christus Medicus
(www.christusmedicus.com) mission statement reads: “Reclaim
Christ-centered health care by reforming corporate and public policy to
allow God’s people a ‘conscientious choice’ in selecting health
insurance.” |
