Health care bill causes concern heading into conference committee

By Barrett Duke - Aug 7, 2007

Congress wrapped up its summer of work with a great frenzy of activity last week. Because the members worked on so many bills, some of the failings of their efforts may not receive the attention they deserve.

The SCHIP bill, a very important piece of legislation passed by both the House and Senate, is of particular concern. The State Children’s Health Insurance Program was originally passed in 1997 and has been incredibly successful, providing medical coverage for 6 million uninsured children. The program has to be renewed this year or it will come to an end.

Unfortunately, the new version of SCHIP passed by Congress is seriously flawed at a number of levels. The areas that cause the greatest concern for the ERLC are related to sanctity of life issues.

The House version of the bill, H.R. 3162, fails at two pro-life points. First, it threatens to cut back the ability of senior citizens to supplement their Medicare coverage with their own money to purchase private health insurance. This means that many senior citizens who have the ability to pay for the best insurance coverage they can get, will not be able to do so.

Second, the bill does not enable states to provide medical coverage for unborn children. Essentially, the bill does not recognize an unborn child as a separate person, but treats the unborn child as a part of the mother’s body, subject to the needs and interests of the mother. With this understanding, a woman covered by SCHIP could even get federal financial assistance for an abortion.

The version of the bill approved by the Senate, H.R. 976, doesn’t affect the ability of senior citizens to purchase private health insurance. However, it also treats unborn children as non-persons, just like the House bill.

Since the House and Senate versions of the bill are different, a conference committee will be formed to create one bill out of the two. The ERLC strongly opposes the two anti-life measures in these bills. Senior citizens shouldn’t have their medical coverage options limited by government regulation; and unborn children and their mothers should be treated as two individuals, and each should be provided all the care that any person should receive.

You may want to know how your Congressman and Senators voted on these bills:

In the Senate, all the Democrat senators were joined by the following 18 Republicans in voting for the bill: Alexander (TN), Bond (MO), Coleman (MN), Collins (ME), Corker (TN), Domenici (NM), Grassley (IA), Hatch (UT), Hutchison (TX), Lugar (IN), Murkowski (AK), Roberts (KS), Smith (OR), Snowe (ME), Specter (PA), Stevens (AK), Sununu (NH), and Warner (VA).

In the House 220 Democrats were joined by 5 Republicans in voting for the bill. The 5 Republicans are: Capito (WV), Ferguson (NJ), LaHood (IL), LoBiondo (NJ), and Shays (CT). Ten Democrats voted against the bill. They are: Boren (OK), Cooper (TN), Donnelly (IN), Ellsworth (IN), Etheridge (NC), Hill (IN), Marshall (GA), McIntyre (NC), Shuler (NC), and Taylor (MS).

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