The State Children's Health Insurance Program battle — soon to heat up once Bush vetoes a bipartisan compromise and attention turns to the politically tenuous House Republicans — is about two things.
One, of course, is the children themselves: 6 million currently covered under SCHIP (less if conservatives get their way) and 9 million still uninsured.
Without more health insurance, more kids will get sick and die. Period.
Conservatives, being compassionate and all, will swear up and down they don't want more sick kids. They just don't want "big government" to deal with them.
Now, I could give you some defensive arguments to insist SCHIP really isn't "big government." States take the lead in implementing the program. Private insurers generally deliver the coverage.
Which would be true. But that would leave out a critical part of the program's success: our federal government.
