Focus Magazine
January/February (Vol. 36/1)
Health Care Reform Moves Up on the National Agenda
by Micheal R. Wenger
Amid the rhetorical fog of the presidential primary campaigning, health care has emerged as a major domestic issue. Outside of the war in Iraq, health care may be the issue that will have the greatest influence on the outcomes of both the primaries, particularly the Democratic primaries, and the general election.
The rhetorical fog was never more dense than during the recent battle over the re-authorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, commonly known as S-CHIP. While a strong majority of both houses of Congress favored a significant expansion of the program, claiming that a $35 billion increase in the program is necessary to ensure that all eligible children are covered, President Bush vetoed the increase twice, claiming that it actually would divert funds from insuring the poorest children and that the $5 billion expansion he proposed would be sufficient to cover the children most in need. Even if a compromise is reached, the fog will still hover.
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