Universal health care for all children.

[Lorax7844]

That's one thing I bet we could get everyone in congress to vote for. We can call it Kennedy Care.

Kick and Recommend if you agree that this is a good place to start.

Edited to steal Kennedy Care, cause it was such a nice idea.

[zonkers]

1. What do you think the cutoff age would be? I mean how sad would it be to be

able to care for your toddler but not your teen.

[Lorax7844]

4. 18

I'm just trying to think of ways for us to make this debate simple, so that the middle class and the poor are actually helped. This was the first thing I thought of.

[zonkers]

8. Not a bad idea.

[RandySF]

22. I say 21

A lot of kids 18-21 are in college and as was my case, still under parents' health plans since they are underemployed if working at all.

[Lorax7844]

23. 21 then, fine by me.

[byebyegop]

2. That would 'indoctrinate' them to become good little socialists and we can't have that. n/t

[Cleita]

3. So I guess the parents shouldn't have health care too? n/t

[Lorax7844]

7. course they should, but I am trying to think of things we could push for that

almost everyone could agree on. It would be really hard for those righties in the middle class to say that they wouldn't appreciate free healthcare for their children. It would also take a cold hearted snake in congress to vote against it. Not the repubs voted for SCHIP but still. I'm thinking of consensus building here.

[Cleita]

12. That's caving in.

Caving in in the past has brought us Medicare for seniors but not anyone else. There already are SCHIPS programs for low income children but not anyone else. It has to be all or nothing. No one should be without health care. What good is a sick parent to a child who can't get care and probably even loses his job?

[scheming daemons]

29. or.... it could be considered a "foot in the door"

"it has to be all or nothing" is a sure recipe to end up with "nothing".

[Cleita]

31. We already have the foot in the door with Medicare.

Now it's time to get in the door, not just push a shoulder in and get stuck there. Give it up. Your idea while noble isn't the answer. Personally I would rather end up with nothing if it means we aren't giving a big taxpayer paid welfare chunk to the health insurers.

[Lorax7844]

15. I'd rather have that than a weak ass public option or co-ops

I was just thinking of what could we push for that is simple to explain to the dimmest of people, that would actually help people. This is what I thought of.

[Cleita]

17. The simplest is to demand access to Medicare for those who want it.

Everyone who hasn't had experience with Medicare can get it explained to them by their grand parents. It would be easy to educate people on if we don't let all the complications our Congress critters are introducing into the debate confuse people.

[Lorax7844]

18. Yeah but then you get the whole right wing up in arms

While I agree they can fuck off, I just want to find a way to actually help people and something that would be hard to argue against and easy to explain.

[Cleita]

27. Who cares about them? We are the majority. Now it's time to let Congress

and our President know that.

[defendandprotect]

5. Yes . . . and how about calling it "Kennedy Care" . . .

It's outrageous that the Repugs continue to tell us of the value of a fertilized

egg but upwards of 20% of American children are living in poverty --

and also need health care -- !!!

[Lorax7844]

9. That would be a great name!

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

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[Kaleva]

10. That would be a good start.

A single payer system for all under the age of 19 regardless of family income.

[Lorax7844]

11. Exactly my point. Why we didn't think of this is beyond me.

[Kaleva]

13. Actually been thinking about this for a few years now...

but never did anything with the idea. My thought was for my home state of Michigan to provide such coverage and even came up with a name: "Mi-Care" (pronounced My-Care).

[blm]

32. That was Kerry's Kids First bill - and he said it would be a giant first step to gaining universal

healthcare for all down the road. He held some townhall meetings across the country pushing this bill in 2005 and even put up billboards for it in GOP districts. Think about how corpmedia was treating him then and now understand why.




>>>>>>
John Kerry has been fighting for health care for all Americans. On the first day of the 110th Congress, Kerry introduced legislation in the Senate, the “Kids First Act”, to provide health care coverage to the 11 million American children who currently go without. Kerry’s legislation also helps Governors and states save on health care costs by reducing the burden on state's Medicaid rolls.

More than 500,000 people have signed on as "citizen cosponsors" in support of Kids First at johnkerry.com and nearly 20,000 people across the country have called into Kerry’s “Give Voices to Our Values” phone hotline to record their powerful, personal stories.

He also introduced legislation that would help businesses afford to cover their employees, by making a new deal between employers, health insurers, families and the federal government. Today, the high costs of treating the sickest patients are driving up the price tag for everyone's care and taking a huge toll on businesses. Just one percent of the population pays for nearly a quarter of health care spending. To help businesses get out from under the weight of the most expensive cases, he recently introduced legislation - The Healthy Businesses, Healthy Workers Reinsurance Act - which would reimburse businesses for a percentage of the highest cost cases. It includes cost containment benefits for preventative care, which lowers costs and premiums for employers and employees.

He continues to lead the fight for health care relief for our nation's small businesses. Some small businesses have reported having their premiums increase by more than 70 percent in one year. And less than half of our smallest firms are offering coverage to their workers today. As Chairman of the Senate Small Business Committee, he is pursuing legislation that will give more small businesses access to quality, affordable insurance options for their workers and families.

[LiberalAndProud]

14. I suspect that at least 40 Republicans and 2 Democrats

would vote against it.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/138122.php

[Lorax7844]

16. Yeah, they would but hey think of the children, it makes a really good commercial

[LiberalAndProud]

19. It does, doesn't it?

It strikes me though that we leave a rather large donut hole (18-65 - A lot can go wrong in 47 years). It also strikes me that the folks who are working and paying taxes are the ones that would STILL have no coverage. Seems kinda not fair.

[Lorax7844]

20. But still it is a good place to start.

[Lorax7844]

24. kick before bed

[Mark in Boston]

25. Medicaid and SCHIP cover kids/poor already

am I missing somethin?

Medicaid and SCHIP cover kids/poor already, do they not?

[Lorax7844]

26. Not if you make more than 35 grand a year, too many middle class kids

with shoddy coverage.

[csziggy]

28. Rolling out universal care for all in stages would work well with this

coverage up to 18-21, reduce Medicare eligibility to 55, let people who have been denied insurance or cannot afford private insurance sign up for Medicaid. These are all groups that insurance companies don't really want to cover so there would not be as big a fight.

If we could get those groups covered, it would reduce the use of emergency rooms as primary care facilities, and increase the basic care which should cut expensive to treat complications.

Let the insurance companies sell supplemental policies, the way they do for Medicare now - they make plenty off those, I am sure. And since people who cannot pay high premiums would be taken out of the market, it might give incentive to reduce private health insurance costs.

What I would expect to happen is that as young people get into the market for their own insurance, they will be outraged at the high cost and limited coverage available in private insurance. There will be pressure from them and from the people on the cusp of being old enough to be in Medicare to extend the government plans and narrow the age gap that is not covered.

[dugaresa]

30. Universal Care for Everyone

many kids lose their parents because the parent doesn't have access to healthcare. Nothing worse than having a mother or father die of a preventable illness or cancer when it could have been treated.

So I say universal health care care for all.

[Cronus Protagonist]

33. +1000

Why do people in this country hold children higher than anyone else?

[Stevenmarc]

34. Hell no, the other side will say, well you got Kennedy Care and it will take another 20 years ..

for universal healthcare to be an issue again. You don't get what you want by asking for too little you get it by asking for way too much and working toward reasonable.