House Passes Health Bill

Once again defying a veto threat from President Bush, the House this afternoon passed a new bill to provide health insurance for 10 million children, but not by a margin large enough to override a promised veto.

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Deal on a SCHIP Health Plan Is Possible

Tampa, Florida health insurance for kids is currently under great scrutiny. With the recent Bush Veto of SCHIP program for children, many Florida children will be without health insurance. Is it o.k. to let nearly 9 million children go uninsured? Read More Here To See what Tampa, Florida residents think of the new Veto..

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Health Insurance Veto * Ads Go After Republicans

Miami, Florida (10-09-2007)

Columbus Day is now over and a new coalition of advocacy groups have recently targeted Republicans and their support for SCHIP health insurance program Veto. The federal children's health-care program has recently been veteod by President Bush. This agenda has raised concerns from both sides of the major political parties. Will the Republican Candidates for President go over their plan for future health care programs in the GOP Presidential Candidate Debate this evening? Some of these tough questions must be answered! Lets not get the run around with these politicians and demand we get answers...Is President Bush out of touch with his recent Veto? How will this affect residents that hold a Florida Health Insurance Policy...


House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she hopes to "peel off" 14 Republican votes for the SCHIP bill.

The coalition, which includes the AFL-CIO and MoveOn.org, rolled out a nearly $1 million television ad campaign and is targeting about 20 Republicans to vote to override the president's veto of the bill.

The national ad, sponsored by Americans United for Change, an umbrella group of liberal organizations, is running on cable networks.

It includes images of a baby and other children with an announcer saying "George Bush just vetoed Abby." The coalition also promises to rally activists in districts of another 20 House Republicans over the next two weeks.

This push by Democratic groups comes on top of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's efforts to zero in on eight House Republicans who opposed the bill. The campaign arm started running radio ads and funding automated calls to voters last week in districts it considers competitive for Democratic challengers. Watch Speaker Nancy Pelosi call for the override of Bush's veto »

Sunday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, sounded cautiously optimistic in an interview with Fox News about her party's chances.

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"We take it one day at a time," Pelosi said, adding that Democrats needed "less than 20 votes" in the House to get the two-thirds vote required to override the veto. Pelosi admitted Democrats needed to "peel off" 14 Republicans who voted against the bill last month.

A vote in the House is scheduled for October 18.

On Sunday, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt told the Associated Press he expected the House to sustain the president's veto.

Leavitt also told the AP President Bush was willing to work with Democrats to reauthorize the current program, which covers children from families with incomes up to 200 percent of the poverty level, and to increase funding by 20 percent.

"The president knows bad policy when he sees it," Leavitt told the AP. "But we need to have a serious conversation that involves all of the points of view."

In his weekly radio address Saturday, Bush said, "If putting poor children first takes a little more than the 20 percent increase I have proposed in my budget for SCHIP, I am willing to work with leaders in Congress to find the additional money."

Forty-five Republicans voted with the Democrats on September 25 to reauthorize the program and direct $35 billion over the next five years to states to cover children's health-care costs. Eight Democrats voted against the bill.

Despite the two-week delay on the override vote, designed to pressure Republicans, House GOP leaders sounded confident heading into the weekend that there would not be any additional Republican defections. House GOP Whip Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, predicted Wednesday the number of Republican votes against the measure "will go up, not down."

House Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam, R-Florida, said Thursday that GOP leaders expected to pick up more votes against overriding the veto from at least a couple of Republicans who were absent for the first SCHIP vote.

Asked Sunday about President Bush's suggestion that there was room for compromise on the size of the program, Pelosi said, "It's hard to imagine how we could diminish the number of children who are covered. The president calls himself the decider, and I don't know why he would want to decide that one child has health care and another does not."

House Democratic Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina said if the veto is upheld, House Democrats should push for an even broader version of the children's health-care bill, even if it is opposed in the Senate.


He argued Democrats would gain politically if Republicans blocked the program.

"And let's say to them, go ahead, filibuster," he said. "Our base will understand what a filibuster is, the American people will understand what a filibuster is. They don't understand this 60-vote-rule business. But they remember which party filibustered against all the civil rights bills back in the '50s and '60s, and to have that same party stand up there and start filibustering against health care for children? Man, I would love that picture

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Jacksonvile, Florida, Oct. 8 — The issue of healthcare and politics has heated up again. New York governor, Eliot Spitzer, last week contacted Representative John R. Kuhl Jr. on the issue of children’s health insurance programs in New York. SCHIP programs are in trouble with George W Bush and his new Veto of the legistlation that would have insured nearly 10 million Floridians.


“He said, ‘I am calling you to come over to the dark side,’ ” said Mr. Kuhl, who was urged by the governor to drop his opposition to health care legislation and join the effort to override President Bush’s veto of the bill.

Mr. Kuhl, a Republican who narrowly survived the Democratic sweep of 2006, said he was unlikely to budge. As a result, voters in his district will also be getting calls — from Democrats and advocacy groups who are planning a telephone, radio, television and even text-message barrage against Republicans over what is shaping up as a defining domestic policy issue of the 2008 campaign.

Democrats believe they have Republicans — short on campaign cash, contending with a spurt of retirements and quarreling — on the run over the legislation, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Party leaders say the willingness of so many House Republicans to stick with Mr. Bush in the face of bipartisan backing for a $35 billion expansion of the program to provide insurance for poor children will prove costly as Election Day looms a year from now.

“They know they cannot sustain this vote in the fall of 2008 and they are praying it gets worked out before then,” said Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.

The Health and Human Services secretary, Michael O. Leavitt, said Sunday that Mr. Bush was ready to work it out. “The president has already said, ‘I want a compromise,’ ” Mr. Leavitt said on the ABC program “This Week.” But Democrats say that they have already compromised with Senate Republicans and they are in no hurry to scale back the plan.

Republicans acknowledge they could suffer some short-term damage from an issue easily framed as either favoring health care for poor children — or not.

“Certainly in the immediate, superficial look, everybody is for covering kids who don’t have health insurance,” said Representative Adam H. Putnam of Florida, chairman of the House Republican Conference.

But he and other Republicans say they eventually can turn the issue to their advantage by making the case that Democrats are spending too much, taking a first step toward national health care and devoting tax money to coverage for some families who can afford insurance. They contend their stance could have special resonance with conservatives unhappy with the recent Republican reluctance to resist popular spending programs.

“If this was October of next year, I’d be really worried,” said Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, the second-ranking House Republican. “But this is October of this year and the beginning of us getting our credibility back by showing that we are willing to take principled stands on spending.”

House Republican leaders are confident they can hold their forces together and sustain the president’s veto in a vote scheduled for Oct. 18. But over the next two weeks, Mr. Kuhl and more than two dozen other Republicans will face an onslaught of advertisements and public activities intended to put pressure on them to vote to override it.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is taking on eight Republicans in competitive districts with a series of automated calls and radio advertisements that remind listeners that their lawmaker gets taxpayer-paid health care while opposing the expansion of the program administered by each state.

Beginning Monday, a coalition of liberal and labor groups will start a $1 million advertising effort, with a national advertisement to run on cable channels and local advertisements aimed at specific lawmakers. The national commercial shows a series of children beginning with a baby girl and states, “George Bush just vetoed Abby.” It says Mr. Bush puts excessive war spending over health care at home.

“The president’s ‘yes men’ in Congress need to stand up to Bush and stand up for families who work hard but simply can’t find affordable insurance,” said Brad Woodhouse, president of Americans United for Change, one group leading the effort.

The health care fight is coming at an inopportune moment for Congressional Republicans. In the Senate, a string of retirements has created openings for Democrats to increase their slim majority. House Republicans have had retirements of their own and party fund-raising is lagging behind Democrats by a wide margin.

The Republican targets of the advocacy campaign say they do not view it as much of a threat, saying many of their voters will not consider the advertisements credible and that tactics like robocalls can backfire.

“I don’t worry about it,” said Representative Steve Chabot of Ohio, who noted that he strongly supported the insurance program when it was created in 1997. “I am perfectly satisfied with my vote and there is a range of reasons why I think this is a bad bill.”

Bush Veteos Health Legistlation

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Fort Myers, Florida Health Insurance

Debate on Health Care * Presidential Candidates

All of the 2008 presidential hopefulls have been presenting their versions of a National Health Care Plan. Many of the Universal Health Care plans promoted are similar, while others are very different. Candidates have used the state of Florida as a launching pad to unveil their health insurance plans. Many Floridians argree that a big change must be made, but they are still unsure as to which plan best suits them. Are you a Florida resident that is self employed? If so you might want to review the various health plans before voting for a candidate in 2008.

Florida is emerging as the sounding board on health care reform for leading contenders for the presidency in 2008.Mitt Romney chose an August meeting of the Florida Medical Association for the national unveiling of his new health care reform plan.Sen. Hillary Clinton dropped hints about her plan during a Sept. 10 speech in Boca Raton, then released it a week later.Their attention to the Sunshine State makes sense, and not just because of Florida's traditional role as the biggest of the electoral swing states.Florida also is a leader in a less-coveted category: the states with the most residents lacking health insurance.A recent Census Bureau report found that from 2004 to 2006, 20.3 percent of Floridians under age 65 -- more than 3.6 million people -- had no health insurance for at least one year.That gave Florida an unwelcome bronze medal. Its uninsured rate trails only Texas and New Mexico.The issue also resonates nationally.Democratic voters rank health care along with the Iraq war as the most important issue in the campaign, according to a recent poll by the Kaiser Foundation. Republican voters ranked health care second to Iraq as the top issue.Virtually all major candidates have floated plans for some overhaul to the system.Democrats like Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards favor a universal "safety net" coverage coupled with changes to make existing insurance plans less expensive.Republicans, led by Romney and Rudy Giuliani, oppose new government programs, and instead propose making insurance affordable by streamlining the current system, increasing competition and allowing more tax breaks.Closer to home, the Herald-Tribune asked three people with varying stakes in health care what reforms they would like to see.The uninsured entrepreneurIn one sense, Ken Wingate could be just who Democratic candidates have in mind -- in particular, when they argue that every American needs coverage regardless of income or health.The Sarasota resident cannot get health insurance because of a pre-existing condition. An illness this summer forced an emergency room visit -- and left him with a $4,790 bill that he will have to pay out of his pocket."How am I going to come up with that?" he asked.But Wingate also makes a case for Republicans' arguments that forcing all employers to provide health insurance would be a disaster for business.Wingate recently launched a photography business, Kenneth Wingate Photography, which just landed a major retail client. He is wary of legislation that could require all businesses, even small ones like his, to provide health care coverage."Creating legislation out of both sides is the best way to go," Wingate said.Increasing health care coverage without raising costs for businesses leaves the question: Who will pay?Wingate said the government should shift money from the Iraq war and other expenses overseas."More of our taxpayer money needs to be put to taking care of our own, here in our country," he said.The hospital presidentGwen MacKenzie has seen the benefits and the consequences of universal health care coverage.When she ran a hospital system in Detroit, MacKenzie saw Canadian patients come across the border for care when government funding ran low."It was amazing to see how many people who had national health care and also had private insurance coming to Detroit," she said.But since taking the helm of Sarasota Memorial Hospital in 2005, she has seen patients leave mountains of unpaid bills -- some $140 million in just two years.Most are patients with no insurance. They are choosing between paying for groceries and paying a hospital bill -- "and you know which one they choose," she said.But even some insured people do not pay. Many chose to "roll the dice," MacKenzie said, by buying plans with low premiums but high out-of-pocket payments -- charges that they cannot afford when they get sick."Too many times, we see patients with high-deductible health plans that often fail to cover their basic health care costs," she said.So her preference for reform would include elements of both parties' approaches.MacKenzie agrees with Romney's assertion that states can develop their own innovative plans. Those plans would automatically enroll people in a basic insurance plan, allowing them to opt out for private insurance.She likes tax breaks to help small businesses buy health insurance, something the hospital is trying to do through its "Charter Plan" insurance program.Any national plan would have to be careful not to sacrifice depth of coverage just to include all people, she said. Any national plan to expand enrollment, however, must be careful not to cut back on individuals' breadth and depth of coverage."While we want more people to have insurance, we also want them to have meaningful, substantive coverage," she said.The doctorDr. Michael Patete, a Venice ear, nose and throat specialist who has lobbied in Washington, wants to see a truly free market -- meaning less control from both government and insurance companies.With insurance, patients do not know how much their care costs, and do not make informed choices, he said.For example, he said, he might recommend a patient get an MRI test, a sort of high-powered X-ray that can examine soft tissue.With insurance, a patient might only have a $25 copayment and would probably go ahead with the test.But a patient who has to pay the actual cost -- at minimum $400, and usually far more -- might wonder if the test were necessary, what hospital or lab has the best machine, and what prices they charge."Wouldn't you want to know more?" Patete said.Like MacKenzie, Patete had some experience with the Canadian system. His daughter broke an elbow during a trip there. The hospital visit cost $600.Friends of his recently took a child to a Florida emergency room for a leg injury, and X-ray, splint and crutches ran $1,500 -- without the doctor's fee.But he fears a Canadian-style system would lead to two tiers of patients, one paying for the best care, on demand, and the other waiting for safety-net care."The American people are not willing to do that," he said.He would like to see more use of health savings accounts, in which people set aside a tax-exempt portion of their pay to be used for medical expenses.While some candidates espouse that, no one plan seems complete."Nobody's got the right answer," Patete said.