Friday, December 8, 2017

FUND CHIP

Update: I wrote this nearly a month ago.  Congress passed temporary funding for CHIP, but not permanent.

Mine and 9 million other children are on CHIP insurance plans.  CHIP was a separately funded  plan for parents who don't qualify for Medicaid but cant afford to put their children on commercial insurance.  Beyond that I could put my children on insurance and not be able to pay for them to go to any Doctor ever.  They both require specialists, therapies and inhalers.  What Congress is doing is a moral travesty.  Unfortunately as of late that doesn't seem to be what concerns them.  Congress seems incapable of making a decision based on its moral implications and more leaning toward the donors that line their pockets.    

A few states predict they will reach the end of their funds before January 1st the majority wont make it much past January.  By September the last state will be eking out the last of their funding.  There is hope in places like Colorado that the state will carry the costs, and the program can continue despite loss in federal funding.  What about places like Kentucky though?  Can places that are not thriving economically still care for the children? What will be the ultimate line drawn for Congress?  Will this be the same long haul as gun laws?  I am afraid it will as long as congress doesn't suffer they wont see it as an issue they are responsible for.  Here is a promise. My children will not suffer in silence so that the GOP can get rich and feel like rulers of the universe. What if their children were on CHIP?  Would they be dragging their feet like this?  I think not.

The thing is that a large number of children receiving Medicaid and 100% of children on CHIP come from homes with working parents.  So what's the message, you cant work hard enough for helathy children?  We only care about ourselves?  We are moving past the morally ambiguous arguments about drug addicts selling their food stamps, which I also find invalid just FYI.  We are in the realm of saying that hard working Americans are still not hard working enough to reap the benefits of their taxes.  I am angry and exhausted of opening Twitter or Facebook, or watching the news day in and day out only to see the safety nets that allowed America to be prosperous being dismantled so we can what build a wall, have tax cuts I have never heard anyone care about?

What does it say about the government that they are writing tax exemptions for owning a private jet but not willing to provide medical care for children.  I would hope that at the end of this tunnel There is a new system that is better than this one. That someone smart enough and socially conscious enough will materialize and change the game. As of now Paul Ryans statement that they are also going to roll back funding for Medicaid and Medicare, and another statement about the SNAP program,  makes this situation all the more hopeless. Its like Paul Ryan and Mitch Mconnell have no idea what people are surviving on.  My family gets by on about 3600 a month. But we don't have savings and anything less leaves us to really struggle. 

I am making it a point to bring up CHIP funding everyday.  I email Senators and Representatives, tell others to ask about it at town halls.  Tweet at various people.  I am not going to sit silently and let this just happen to me and my children and neither should you.  There is no need.  Why these programs? Why doesn't congress take a hit.  50,000 a year for 528 people is 26 million dollars.  

My last thought is that this is not and should not be a partisan issue.  The health of, children, elderly and poor is not about what political party you are in but rather what kind of person you are.  Please do the right thing.

  





























Sources:
https://www.macpac.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Federal-CHIP-Funding_When-Will-States-Exhaust-Allotments.pdf

https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/policy-basics-where-do-our-federal-tax-dollars-go







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