More Children Getting Health Insurance, Republicans Dread

If there is one evil that rightwingers pull out all stops to prevent, it's the terrifying thought that American children will have guaranteed health care.

That prospect is repugnant to the rightwingers; and the Bush administration, in the middle of a presidential vacation and a congressional recess, has made it impossible for states to use the Children’s Health Insurance Program to insure children of the middle-class.

Bush stopped the evildoers from expanding health care for children of the gold-plated American middle class, now he can get back to his vacation, and tell the health insurance industry: Mission accomplished.

Robert Pear in the Times:

The Bush administration, continuing its fight to stop states from expanding the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program, has adopted new standards that would make it much more difficult for New York, California and others to extend coverage to children in middle-income families.

Administration officials outlined the new standards in a letter sent to state health officials on Friday evening, in the middle of a month-long Congressional recess. In interviews, they said the changes were aimed at returning the Children’s Health Insurance Program to its original focus on low-income children and to make sure the program did not become a substitute for private health coverage.

After learning of the new policy, some state officials said today that it could cripple their efforts to cover more children by imposing standards that could not be met.

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