Have we lost our compassion?

I’m surprised and disappointed at the response by some progressives to Dennis Kucinich’s insistence that the State Children’s Healthcare Insurance Program (SCHIP) bill should cover legal immigrant children. If a child’s parents are here legally, and working in the US, which means they very likely pay taxes, why should their child, who has no control over where his or her parents decide to live, not benefit from this program?

Years ago I spoke to some US citizens who’d done technical writing on contract in Canada. While living there they paid into the Canadian healthcare system and were allowed to use it for their healthcare. What if they’d been told that they had to pay into the healthcare system, but they couldn’t use it?

For that matter, how would other progressives feel if I, as a person who doesn’t have children, said I don’t want to pay for any child’s care? And by the way, I pay health insurance premiums for my husband and myself (as “self and family”) in the same amount that a family of seven pays on the same plan. What if I refused to do that? This is the same thing we’re telling the children of legal immigrants about SCHIP.

That’s not to say that SCHIP is more than a band-aid to begin with, since it pays into a huge, for-profit corporate medical infrastructure that’s making a few rich at everyone else’s expense while it holds our healthcare hostage, and SCHIP will force more of our money into that sick system. But it’s a band-aid that likely saves lives, and if we continue with SCHIP until a sweeping change comes about, SCHIP should include all children.

My worry is that passing the SCHIP bill without ensuring all children are covered by it who need to be sets a dangerous precedent. The “emergency” of getting it passed will be over, so it will be put on a back burner to deal with later, and the next time it’s looked at, people say, “Well, we didn’t cover them before, so why should we now?” This marginalizes a large group of children who need it now. They need our attention now, as much as any child. Perhaps they’re only being marginalized because people don’t consider them “our” children. But that’s my point. If I can consider other people’s children my responsibility, at all, then we should all be able to consider every child in the country our responsibility, and not doing so, letting the bill go forward without them being considered is just like an emergency room only taking patients who are insured. Yes, at least some people are getting treated. But it’s still wrong. It’s reminiscent of the lifeboats on the Titanic.

There’s an interesting post and discussion on SCHIP at The Wichita Eagle Editorial Department Blog.

Don’t forget to cast your vote in the Democracy for America Presidential Pulse Poll.