One of the big goals of healthcare reform is to provide
insurance to those who cannot afford coverage in the current market — this
includes children and older adults under 65. In order to extend coverage to the
uninsured, you have to spread the risk of becoming sick across society. Gerson
also confuses mandating coverage for the young working population with
providing supports to children. Children, like seniors, often are priced out of
the insurance market (they have trouble adding to their parents’ income). One of
the best provisions of the House healthcare bill is to extend Medicaid
eligibility to 150 percent of the federal poverty limit. The provision will
help ensure that children now uninsured and those currently in CHIP are covered.
Budget and deficit hawks continually quack (or whatever
sound a hawk makes), “Would someone please think of the grandchildren?” In
reality, they rarely propose an actual increase in benefits for children and
grandchildren. Their Maude Flanders-like retort is often just a smokescreen
for trying to reduce public spending for everyone. They also routinely
mistake entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicaid as simply a
payout to senior voters, but they are much more. Over 6 million children
receive a cash benefit from Social Security, and Medicaid provides essential
medical care to the poorest children in society.
In 1983, Bill Bradley called Social Security “the best
expression of community that we have in this country today.” If you want to
provide supports for our country’s children and grandchildren, the best way to
do so is to support programs, like healthcare reform, that broadly spread risks and supports across
society.
The views expressed in this blog do not represent the views or opinions of Generations United.