John Kerry's "Hillarycare Lite"

I stopped by the old John Kerry Website today just to see what the heck was going on.

First, the good news--John Kerry has actually tendered an original piece of legislation, Senate Bill S114, called "Kids come first act of 2005." How exciting...

You do remember that in all the years he had been in the Senate before losing his bid for the presidency that he had only sponsored TWO bills…EVER? Massachusetts' voters must be so proud...

Unfortunately, when you look at the details of S114, it looks like it is another version of "Hillarycare Lite."

The interesting thing is that on the Kerry Web Site they say:

"On the first day of the 109th Congress, Kerry introduced legislation in the Senate, the “Kids First Act” - S. 114, to provide health care coverage to the 11 million American children who currently go without. Kerry’s legislation also helps Governors and states save on health care costs by reducing the burden on state's Medicaid rolls."

New Federal funding for 11 million uninsured children?

Sounds good on the surface, but...How does Kerry define "children?" Let’s take a look at the actual text of the legislation which can be found here on the Senate Web Site. It reads as follows:

"Currently, there are 9,000,000 children under the age of 19 that are uninsured. One out of every 8 children are uninsured while 1 in 5 Hispanic children and 1 in 7 African American children are uninsured. Three-quarters, approximately 6,800,000, of these children are eligible but not enrolled in the medicaid program or the State children's health insurance program (SCHIP). Long-range studies found that 1 in 3 children went without health insurance for all or part of 2002 and 2003."

So which is it, Mr. Kerry--11 million uninsured kids, or 9 million uninsured kids? And who is at fault that the 6.8 million kids "are eligible for but not enrolled in the Medicaid program"?

The government's, or the kid’s parents who didn't enroll them?

So, now if you believe the actual numbers put forth in the bill, there is really somewhere between 2.2 and 4.2 million uninsured kids that are not already eligible for Medicaid—a program which we are already paying taxes for.

As you read further, you find that they aren't really talking about little babies and toddlers (what my mental picture of kids usually is).

"There are 7,600,000 young adults between the ages of 19 and 20. In the United States, approximately 28 percent, or 2,100,000 individuals, of this group are uninsured."

Ah hah…so S114 also covers 2.1 million "young adults" in the 19 to 20 age bracket, which is where I guess the Kerry Website gets their 11 million number (+ or - 100,000, what the heck...)

They also want to tie federal funding to promises by each state that children of illegal aliens are not excluded in any future state legislation and to include children of families that earn 300% of the poverty line base income. So this isn't really all about insuring the children of poor families, is it? It's about transfering the legitimate responsibility of the healthcare of children from the parents (democratic voters) to the taxpayers (republican voters.) Well isn't that special.

And finally, I want to point out that there seems to be a pathologically induced inability in "healthcare advocates" and Democrats to discern between the concepts of a lack of "health insurance" and a lack of "adequate and timely health care." Health Insurance is money, Health Care is pills and shots and doctors and hospitals.

This bill, in my opinion, is typical liberal bait and switch crap.

All the public sees and hears is the "Kids come First" title and the 11 million uninsured number, with no qualification as to how the "kids" got to where they are in the first place--the parents lack of concern and action.

What do you think?

Update 11:40 PM:

I knew I smelled a rat in the form of an income tax increase in this bill, and I found it:

SEC. 501. PARTIAL REPEAL OF RATE REDUCTION IN THE HIGHEST INCOME TAX BRACKET.

Section 1(i)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following flush sentence:

`In the case of taxable years beginning during calendar year 2005 and thereafter, the final item in the fourth column in the preceding table shall be applied by substituting for `35.0%' such rate as the Secretary determines is necessary to provide sufficient revenues to offset the Federal outlays required to implement the provisions of, and amendments made by, the Kids Come First Act of 2005.'.

In other words, the health care insurance costs of Mr. Kerry's 9 million or 11 million "kids", most of which are already eligible for taxpayer funded Medicare, will be born by the "wealthy taxpayers" that pay the current 35% rate.

How much should I mail in, Senator Kerry? Will all of my income be enough?

What a %$#& moron...