IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED:
Tell Congress you oppose expansion of KidCare "Medicare"

The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote tomorrow on H.R. 3162, the Children’s Health and Medicare Protection Act (CHAMP), which would expand SCHIP and Medicaid programs for children.

Even if the bill passes, which is likely, it could be stopped in the Senate.  So be sure to call your Senators.  Additionally, we need strong support to keep a Presidential veto from being overridden, in case the bill passes.

This bill will cost $160 billion, and the Congressional Budget Office estimates that this bill will increase the federal deficit by $73 billion.

There is widespread documentation that millions of children WHO ARE ALREADY ELIGIBLE FOR MEDICAID HAVE NOT SIGNED UP FOR THOSE BENEFITS, prompting the conclusion that no additional expansion is needed.

This bill will turn middle-class children into welfare recipients and increasingly crowd out private insurance. Coverage of SCHIP could expand to families with incomes of $80,000 or even more. It also covers non-children. In some states, the majority of recipients are adults!

Remember that the Clinton Health Care Task Force documents discovered by AAPS in 1994 showed that then-First Lady Hillary Clinton planned to expand government medicine through an incremental “KidCare” plan attached to Medicare, in the event that the Clinton Plan failed to pass in one lump.

CHAMP includes a number of problematic Medicare changes. The bait is a change in the SGR (sustained growth rate) formula, with a 0.5% update in 2008 and 2009. However, in 2010 and 2011, “temporary” cuts could be 12% or more.

The AMA is telling its members to contact Rep. Michael Turner (OH) to register their support for this bill.

If you oppose this expansion of government medicine, please contact Rep. Turner, as well as your Member of Congress.