SCHIP in the News AGAIN!!

If you're someone interested in health policy or someone who happened to follow the whole SCHIP debacle last fall, you might be interested in this little tidbit of information.

Bush administration now willing to increase SCHIP spending by $19.3 billion only weeks after vetoing a bipartisan compromise by Robert Laszewski

and

Bush's SCHIP measure called overdue and underfunded by Farah Kahn

Now it appears that the Bush administration has "recalculated things saying, 'We have better estimates now.'"

So this is what happens when folks in charge, who have a personal agenda and narrow view of situations, don't listen to the very ones who KNOW the situation, ie. the states' health departments and the very citizens who need their services.

Recently a fellow blogger discussed the complicated redtape involved with receiving services for her son. It doesn't matter through which agency these services are funded, the point remains that citizens in the trenches are not being heard when their needs are clearly expressed.

I want to say to Bush and the presidential candidates...

Listen to your citizens, listen to the people, listen to the little guy who is too busy in the trenches of life and surviving to come lobby you or flatter you or rah-rah in the crowds.

Attend to the needs of those less fortunate and struggling day-to-day to find breathing room between the challenges of life. And I do thank you for finally conceding (somewhat) that more funding is necessary to maintain a vital program for the health of our country.

To my reader, I recommend the above articles. They are short but highly informational.