Dennis Kucinich: “I rise in support of the vote to override the President's veto of SCHIP. I do so because the President's objections to…”

“I rise in support of the vote to override the President's veto of SCHIP. I do so because the President's objections to government health insurance for low income children are outrageous. That said, I still believe, the bill's failure to provide coverage for legal immigrants is reprehensible. All children deserve health care coverage. Health care is a right, not a privilege. The denial of a lifesaving service based on an arbitrary length of citizenship is simply wrong. It is the responsibility of Congress to address the main difficulties that prevent legal immigrant children from gaining access to health care. This bill does exactly the opposite. Thus I felt compelled to vote against the bill after the Senate negotiators refused to provide health benefits to legal immigrant children. Negotiating away health care for 400,000-600,000 children as a political compromise is not acceptable. The President has vetoed the bill because he calls it a step toward socialized medicine. This perennial straw-man is trotted out when meritorious arguments are lacking. In fact, SCHIP uses private doctors and private health care plans. More importantly, however, the President is fond of ignoring the volumes of literature showing that government-run health insurance programs that use private hospitals and doctors like Medicare and Medicaid, deliver higher quality care at lower costs with higher rates of satisfaction than private insurance plans.”