Editorials

Healthy minds in healthy bodies

Nov 1, 2007 2:37 PM

While educators focus primarily on the minds of their students they know that minds don’t function well if they’re not in healthy bodies. That’s one of the reasons the AFT, our national union, has long made health care for children a major priority and why it has worked hard recently to help pass legislation that would expand the State-Children’s Health Insurance Program, commonly known as S-CHIP. The program helps children whose families don’t qualify for Medicaid but can’t afford private insurance and would, among other things, provide for such basic needs as checkups, vaccinations and preventive care.

Congress recently passed by a wide margin legislation to renew and expand the program from the current $5 billion-per-year program to a $12-billion-per-year program and expand coverage from 6.6 million children to more than 10 million children.

President Bush vetoed the measure, calling it too expensive. Ironically, he did this while asking Congress for an additional $46 billion for next year to fight the war in Iraq. That would bring next year’s price tag for Iraq to $160 billion and the cost since the war began to some $450 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Yet, in his mind, $60 billion for S-CHIP over five years is too expensive.

Unfortunately, the wide margin by which Congress passed the S-CHIP bill was not quite wide enough to override Bush’s veto. Congress is trying again. The House made a few modifications that the White House and some Republicans had asked for and passed a revised bill on Oct. 25; the Senate was expected to pass it the following week.

The AFT is still pressing hard for this legislation and, if necessary, for Congress to override if the president again vetoes the bill. If your representative has not supported this bill, now is the time to express your outrage.