S-CHIP passes without help from Kucinich

Health care is a major problem for the poor and almost poor. It is also a fabrication that people don't get health care. Let me explain.

If you are poor and sick you get health care because hospitals will treat you even if you cannot pay. The problem is for those almost poor people who have no insurance. Should they need medical care they must pay for it. They can lose their retirement accounts, home and any savings they have to pay the bills. Only after the "almost poor" become "poor" will the government step in.

The problem I have with this is that now we have another poor person, without a home and any resources for retirement, because they had a health care emergency. I believe we are better than that as a nation.

If we expect the poor to work hard to get out of poverty and off the public dime, then we need to give them a chance to stay there. It is inevitable that, as we get older, we all will have a health care crisis. Why would we give the mixed message to poor Americans that we want them to be productive members of society for a while. But, when they get old we want them to be poor again and not be able to help their kids by passing on any assets.

S-Chip is legislation that helps almost poor people get insurance at a cost to our nation of 33 billion. How could anyone (Kucinich) vote against it in the face of sending another 190 billion to Iraq.

More on it here.