Bush warns against children's health plan
WASHINGTON — Laying down a marker on healthcare, President Bush on Wednesday strongly criticized a push by Democrats and some moderate Republicans to broaden a popular children's insurance program. Bush called the plan a step toward a government takeover of medicine.
After months of watching from the sidelines as Congress ignored his healthcare ideas, Bush forcefully reinserted himself into the debate. His bottom line: Government healthcare programs should focus on the poor and near-poor, not on middle-class families.
"That's the divide," Bush said at a White House event. He proposed helping middle-income families by changing the tax code to help make private insurance more affordable.
Democrats, he added, want "to take incremental steps down the path to government-run healthcare for every American. It's the wrong path for our nation."
He said that would eliminate choice and competition in healthcare, cause huge increases in government spending that could lead to higher taxes, and "result in rationing, inefficiency and long waiting lines."
Congressional Democrats favor expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program, known in California as Healthy Families, to cover more middle-income families.
Nationally, it covers more than 6 million youths -- as well as some adults -- mainly in low-income working families. Legal authority for the program expires in a few months, and its reauthorization is generally considered the most important healthcare decision Congress will make this year.
Bush "is absolutely drawing the line," said Grace-Marie Turner, a healthcare policy expert who attended a White House meeting with the president Wednesday.
"He is saying further expansion of government programs is not the way to go. We want to increase access to private health insurance," said Turner, who heads the Galen Institute, a research group that advocates market-based healthcare reforms.
Leading Democrats immediately took exception to Bush's remarks.
The president's "controversial healthcare tax proposals would not be a responsible path to take," said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.). His panel has been stymied in a behind-the-scenes effort to reach a bipartisan compromise on renewal legislation.
Said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.): "Once again, the president's solution is to put everyone at the mercy of private insurers."
