Call to action spreads to hospitals nationwide
CLEVELAND — "At Rainbow, we believe that every child deserves excellent health care. I am very upset that there may not be enough funds available to ensure that low-income working families can have their children's health care covered," said Lolita McDavid, MD, a pediatrician and director of child advocacy and protection at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital. “That's why the physicians at Rainbow - those in practice and those in training- are taking time out to send a message to President Bush to sign and not veto the SCHIP bill.”
McDavid was referring to President George Bush’s vow to veto the bill passed by both the House and the Senate this week to reauthorize and expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. SCHIP is a federal program implemented in 1997 to cover uninsured children who don’t qualify for Medicaid. The 10-year program will expire Sept. 30 unless it is reauthorized.
Pediatric residents at Rainbow Babies & Children’s are determined not to let the reauthorization bill go down quietly. On Oct. 2 at noon, they’ll gather in the performance area at Rainbow to show their support for the legislation and to protest the expected veto. They’ll be wearing blue ribbons and sharing stories about the kids under their care who stand to lose the only health insurance coverage many of them have ever had.
They won’t be alone. Residents at more than 17 institutions have now signed on to conduct their own, simultaneous “Stand Up For Kids” events. Committed participants include programs from coast to coast and those in between: from Florida to Southern California, Boston to Phoenix. New programs are being added hourly; call the above numbers for updated information.
The residents hope that mobilizing medical professionals will generate enough votes in the House to override the threatened veto. Although the bill passed the Senate on Sept. 27 with a veto-proof majority of 67 votes, the Sept. 25 vote in the House garnered only 265 of the 289 votes needed to override a presidential veto.
About 6.6 million children per year rely on SCHIP coverage for their basic medical needs; the new bill would renew the program for five years and extend coverage to an additional 4 million children. President Bush has said the $60 billion bill is too expensive and goes too far toward federalizing health care.
The Oct. 2 event reflects how health care for kids strikes a nerve with the young doctors on the front lines. Although individual pediatric residents have been writing letters and calling their legislators, encouraging them to first vote for and then to overturn a presidential veto of the SCHIP reauthorization bill, they recently decided the issue was so important that they should mount a more visible, public effort
“These are the future pediatricians of America mobilizing to protect the future of their country: children who need regular, basic health care,” said McDavid. “It’s inconceivable that the children we care for every day who rely on this program could now be uninsured.” |