Senate Debates Government Child Healthcare

Under the guise of 'providing uninsured children with access to healthcare,' two bills have been introduced in Congress, one in the House, the other in the Senate, that would renew and expand the government child healthcare program.

The Senate debated their version of the plan today. Senators sparred over the necessity of such a massive socialized system for a tiny minority that does not have health insurance.

Senator Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, questioned the wisdom of such a plan when at least half of the estimated 9 million children who would be covered already have private health insurance.

Indeed, this is the key question.

If this plan is what the Democrats claim it is, then why are they seeking to cover millions of persons who already have private health insurance?

The fact that Congressional Democrats do such things is the smoking gun that proves their true intent. They wish to dismantle America's premier healthcare system, which is the envy of the world, and replace it with socialized medicine.

The only problem is that Americans would resist such a massive upheaval if it were done all at once. Thus, the Democrats' plan is to do it in increments.

Their program to 'provide access to healthcare for children who are not covered' is but a ruse, a small step in the direction of the ultimate goal to place all of our healthcare system under the control of the federal government.

Four important considerations must be addressed before the country goes marching headlong into this ill-advised program.

First, if the plan is designed to give uninsured children access to healthcare, then why are upwards of 14 million children covered under this plan, when only 9 million at most need it?

Democrats even conceded today that some adults are covered under this plan.

So much for the so-called 'children's healthcare plan.'

Second, if this plan is designed, as the Democrats claim, to provide access for uninsured children, then why are an estimated 4.5 million out of the 9 million targeted for coverage ALREADY covered under private insurance plans?

Obviously, somebody is lying about the true intent of this plan.

Third, there is a vast difference between 'access to healthcare' and 'healthcare insurance.' Every single human being in the United States of America has access to healthcare through the nearest hospital emergency room, free clinics, and other support services.

The mere fact that someone may be lacking health insurance does not mean they do not have 'access' to healthcare.

Most private hospitals must donate a portion of their services to the poor each year in order to stay in business. And publicly funded hospitals are forbidden from denying care to those who need it.

Thus, the Democrats' carefully chosen terminology for their plan, i.e., 'providing access,' is highly misleading. Their plan is not about providing something that is already available. Rather, their plan is for the concept of government-run, socialized medicine to seize one more segment of the U.S. healthcare system.

Fourth, does anyone know how many of the estimated 9 million children targeted under this plan are illegal aliens?

So far, we have not been informed of any estimates on the number of illegals this program is designed to benefit. But we know this is part of the equation.

It is estimated that there are upwards of 20 million illegal aliens in the U.S. today. We know for a fact that a sizable portion of these 20 million are children, given the high birth rates within that sub-group.

This being the case, is this 'children's healthcare program' simply another giveaway program, implemented by Democrats, to appease one of their core constituencies--illegal aliens?

Senator Sessions pointed to many other problems with this program in his remarks before the Senate today, not the least of which is funding and the inequities that allow higher-income states, such as Massachusetts, to spend more federal funds on the program than poorer states, such as Mississippi.

In fact, Sessions 'outed' the Democrats' dirty little secret, that in Massachusetts children living in households with an income of $60,000 per year can be covered under this plan.

SIXTY THOUSAND DOLLARS? The poverty level is a fraction of that, and besides, we have been told by the Democrats that this program is for poor children who 'do not have access.'

Apparently, this is yet another lie.

As we have stated many times before on The Liberty Sphere, we are all for programs designed to provide health coverage to those who do not have it. But we are vehemently opposed to government doing it.

We are even more opposed to these programs covering those who already have insurance.