10-03-07, 11:53 am

Shunning the wishes of the majority of the public and snubbing members of his own party who support ensuring that millions of America’s children will have access to health care, President Bush today vetoed the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) renewal bill.

Bush refused to listen to many leading Republican lawmakers who joined with nearly every Democrat in the House and Senate who voted to reauthorize the program.

The president ignored the 4 million additional children who would be eligible for health care coverage under the reauthorization—joining the 6.6 million already enrolled.

He disregarded the 81 percent of Democrats, 69 percent of independents and 61 percent of Republicans who told an ABC News-Washington Post poll they support the $35 billion increase in the bill so more children get health coverage.

He vetoed the children’s health bill two days after he declared Oct. 1 as Child Health Day.

Says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney: The president’s decision to veto legislation that would provide health care to millions of children is nothing short of disgraceful. With the sweep of a pen, he has slammed the door on these children’s best opportunity to grow up healthy and to reach their fullest potential.

As if to add insult to injury, the president vetoed health insurance for children in the same week as he proclaimed an official “Child Health Day”…Our children need a lot more than rhetoric to grow into healthy and productive adults. If President Bush really wants to show commitment to children’s health, he should give them annual check-ups, vaccinations and regular contact with a pediatrician who knows and cares about them – he shouldn’t just give them a press release.

Funding for the program expired Sept. 30, but Congress passed a continuing resolution to keep government agencies open that haven’t had their appropriations bills approved and included money to fund SCHIP at current levels through Nov. 16. However, each day without a reauthorization bill signed into law is another day that the 4 million children made eligible under the vetoed bill will have to unnecessarily go without health insurance.

It takes a two-thirds majority to override a veto, and the 67–29 Senate vote to approve children health bill is expected to hold up. But the 265­­–159 House vote fails about 25 votes short of what is needed to override the veto.

It is unclear when an override vote will take place, but under congressional rules, the House will be the first to vote because that is where the bill originated.

The AFL-CIO and affiliated unions, child welfare groups, health care providers, community, religious and civil rights groups plan to mobilize to find the needed House votes to override Bush’s veto.

Meanwhile, a coalition of eight states—Arizona, California, Illinois, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Washington—have sued the Bush administration, objecting to new rules that “make it harder for them to provide coverage to children in middle-income families.”

From AFL-CIO Now