SCHIP and Senator Gregg

I just had to make sure that I had this note available to more than just Senator Gregg.

Senator Gregg,
As someone who works in healthcare and is keenly aware of policy issues, I have to take exception to the way that you have addressed the issue if SCHIP. At least you have not claimed, as the President does, that this bill covers adults. But, I believe you have been extremely selective about the facts and figures that you chose to use in your floor statement and that is a shame. There are far too many children in this country (let alone adults) who have no coverage at all or whose parents are spending an excessive percentage of their incomes on health insurance. Although I am very lucky to have a job with health insurance, the part that I pay every year goes up and if I still had dependent children at home I would need to start thinking about how to put off my own health needs to have theirs covered. This is the unfortunate state that many of the working middle class find themselves in. It may seem like earning $63,000 a year for a family of 4 is plenty, but when you factor in cost of housing in an area where you can get a job for $63,000 a year and the general cost of living, there is not much left over for anything but absolute essentials. I would hope that you would reconsider the position of being a "knee-jerk" conservative where covering children's health care is tantamount to socialism; this reaction means that true dialog about the way to handle health care costs in this country is made impossible. And remember, unless you advocate no health care for those who cannot pay, which I don't think you do belive, eventually children without adequate care will be taken to an emergency room and the rest of us will end up paying for that person anyway. Preventive care is much less expensive than acute care.

Paul Courtney