|
Post by MacBeth on Jan 30, 2009 12:38:42 GMT -5
The Senate overwhelmingly approved legislation yesterday to provide health insurance to 11 million low-income children, a bill that would for the first time spend federal money to cover children and pregnant women who are legal immigrants. The State Children's Health Insurance Program, which is aimed at families earning too much money to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance, currently covers close to 7 million youngsters at a cost of $25 billion. Lawmakers voted 66 to 32, largely along party lines, to renew the joint state-federal program and spend an additional $32.8 billion to expand coverage to 4 million more children. The expansion would be paid for by raising the cigarette tax from 39 cents a pack to $1. The House approved similar legislation on Jan. 14, and President Obama is expected to sign a final version as early as next week. www.salon.com/5things/?source=newsletter
|
|
wheelspinner
Are We There Yet? Member
Nobody's perfect, I'm a nobody, so ...
Posts: 4,103
|
Post by wheelspinner on Jan 30, 2009 17:34:04 GMT -5
So all but a handful of Republicans felt it was less important for children to get health care than for them to display their anti-socialist credentials to an ignorant base.
Pretty easy to tell whether they and their families fall into the income groups protected by this legislation.
These guys need to work out that corporations don't vote, people do.
|
|