McMahon co-sponsors SCHIP bill

via press release;

Rep. Michael E. McMahon joined with over sixty-five percent of the House in voting today to pass the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) bill. S-CHIP is critical legislation for New York, which is one of the five states with the largest number of uninsured children. The bill will provided eleven million eligible children with health insurance, including many in the Congressman’s district of Staten Island and Brooklyn, as well as New York City as a whole.

S-CHIP, created in 1997, originally provided health insurance to seven million children in families that did not qualify for Medicaid, but could not afford private health insurance. The bipartisan legislation, which the House voted to reauthorize, renews and improves the original bill by providing health care to an additional four million eligible children. The S-CHIP bill was approved today by a vote of 289 to 139.

Speaking on the floor this morning, Rep. McMahon, a cosponsor of the bill, stated: “Today millions of children from modest income families are not regularly seeing a doctor because they are not enrolled in a children’s health insurance program, even though they are eligible. Today this Congress has an opportunity to change that by passing legislation that will expand the program to four million additional kids.” Noting the need for this legislation as the rate of unemployment rises in the country, Rep. McMahon continued that the bill is “especially important for my home state of New York, which has 402,000 uninsured kids… nearly ten percent of the national total.”

You may recall Fossella previously had voted against SCHIP. Isn't it nice to Rep. McMahon in Washington.

Fossella, SCHIP and Giuliani

Tomorrow the House will vote to override President Bush's veto on the state sponsored children's health care program SCHIP. The bill which passed both the House and Senate with majorities would expand health care coverage to 10 million uninsured children. President Bush has said that is too much in an effort to deny coverage so as to not compete with private insurance company profits at the cost of this nation's most vulnerable.

Rep. Vito Fossella has come out in support of SCHIP and did vote for it unfortunately however after voting against it on the House floor. So he is making progress in the right direction. The problem that remains is that the bill is a handful of votes short of achieving a veto-proof override in the House, something the Senate does have. While Fossella has sent his staffers and PR managers out to write op-ed pieces and letters to the editor to suddenly champion this cause, he has done little in terms of working to get this bill past the President's veto. To my knowledge he has not managed to convince any of his fellow Republicans who voted no to change their vote. He has not gone on Sunday morning talk shows to debate and speak against those denying this bill's chances of passage.

But to really look at his 'support' for SCHIP you need to take a step back and look at some other indicators, such as his endorsement of Giuliani for President. Rudy has stated that he supports President Bush's veto, via AFL-CIO;

NBC News quoted Giuliani as supporting Bush’s veto, saying the SCHIP bill expanded coverage too broadly.

"We’re going to take people off private insurance and put them on government insurance—that’s a disaster."

When you look at this issue in its totality, Fossella has voted once against this bill, Fossella has done nothing to work aggressively towards its passage and Fossella continues to support a Presidential candidate who given the chance would also veto this bill once he is in the White House. So how can Fossella really support SCHIP if all he does is show up once to vote for it after knowing the bill would pass with or without him. If Fossella actually supported SCHIP he would be doing more than defending his first no vote, like defending our children and their need for healthcare access.

LTE: Fossella needs to do more for SCHIP

In a recent 'Letter to the Editor' in the SI Advance the writer comments on the work Fossella needs to do to help the bill overcome President Bush's veto;

We urge Congressman Vito Fossella to work with his colleagues in Congress, and especially his friends in the New York delegation, to pass legislation which will renew and expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), [which was vetoed by President Bush].

snip

The Bush administration has chosen a direction which is anti-children, anti-family and anti-New York. The hard-working families of Staten Island need Congressman Fossella's help now.

Don't let Vito Fossella claim to support SCHIP and do no work to get this past the President's veto. Fossella needs to do more than that. This is a question of whether we provide health care to our most vulnerable constituents, our children, and voting in favor of it and walking away is not good enough.

see also:
House passes SCHIP bill, yet much work ahead for Fossella

House passes SCHIP bill, yet much work ahead for Fossella

Late last night the House passed the new SCHIP conference bill agreed to by both the House and Senate. The bill passed 265-159. Rep. Vito Fossella voted yes on the new bill, despite voting no on the House's earlier version of SCHIP expansion on August 1.

The bill is widely expected to pass the Senate with a 'veto-proof' majority, although fell short of the magic 289 votes needed in the House for this 'veto-proof' majority. This is important because President Bush has been adamant about vetoing this bill in favor of big insurance companies.

Democrats in the House have promised to continue to bring this bill to a vote should Bush veto it. Republicans are on notice that they will continually have to record a vote on the matter and are put in the position of having to support or condone their fellow party members and President should they continue to prevent passage of extending health care to millions of children.

via CQPolitics;

Democrats said they plan to bring the issue up repeatedly -— and to continue to enlist the help of moderate Republicans such as Sen. Charles E. Grassley to help their cause.

Fossella has taken a small step in the right direction but now needs to work on getting this past a veto.

“I wouldn’t want to be the guy that vetoes this bill. And I would not want to be the guy that supports the fellow who did veto the bill.” Rep. Dingell

Call Fossella now, demand he support SCHIP

Today Vito Fossella has one last chance to vote to pass an extension to SCHIP, State Children's Health Insurance Program, before it is set to expire on September 30. So far Vito Fossella has voted against the SCHIP extension on August 1, failing to stop the bill from passing in the House. After passage then in the Senate a conference committee has agreed to legislation and sent it back to both chambers for final approval. The Senate passed the new bill with a veto-proof majority, but it is unknown whether the House will do the same to overcome a promised veto by the Bush administation who oppose using federal money to insure our children.

Republicans like Vito Fossella are needed to bridge this veto proof gap, since the bill will easily pass in the House again. The question is whether Fossella will vote against it allowing Bush to have final say with his veto.

For an outline of what the conference committee's new bill is, see The Gavel, Speaker Pelosi's site. For more information on counter talking points against SCHIP see Campaign for America's Future. Finally the real question here is does Fossella support Good Government or Bad Government?

Call the the House switchboard is (202) 224-3121 and urge Vito Fossella to stop talking and actually vote in favor of extending SCHIP.

One more chance for Fossella to finally support SCHIP

via CQPolitics;

House and Senate leaders have concluded negotiations on a children’s health insurance bill, clearing the way for its passage next week — and a threatened veto by President Bush.

Vito Fossella has already voted against SCHIP when it came to floor in the House on August 1, 2007. Despite that he has used press releases and media reponses to claim he supports expanding SCHIP, hiding the fact that he voted NO on the bill. Now he once again has a chance to stand up and support the bill, to stand up and tell the President not to veto it. Chances are this will not happen and Fossella will claim he supports it, watch the President veto the bill and do absolutely nothing about it, as he has for the past two months. Fortunately it appears there is plenty of Republican support in both the House and Senate to mitigate Fossella's opposition.

Fossella votes against helping needy

On September 6, 2007 Congress overwhelmingly (333-75) passed a bill renewing a program that provides housing assistance to Native Americans. Vito Fossella voted NO.

We await a statement from someone other than himself stating that in fact he supports housing assistance programs and that is why he voted against it, akin to his support for SCHIP despite his vote to not renew it.

Bay Ridge Courier praises Fossella for supporting bill he voted against

Helen Klein of the Bay Ridge Courier wrote a recent article "Sick of it all... - Fossella at odds with Dubya over health care" describing Vito Fossella's opposition to Bush's maneuvers on SCHIP to create immensely difficult hurdles to prevent state's from expanding the program. And my response;

Dear Helen,

In an article from September 6, 2007, Sick of it all... - Fossella at odds with Dubya over health care, you write at length about Rep. Vito Fossella's opposition to President Bush's recent changes via Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on SCHIP.

I appreciate your coverage of the topic, as SCHIP in my opinion is a crucial program and we can not be a great country if we allow our children to go without health insurance and thus simple preventative care and check ups. You state;

"President George W. Bush has opposed expansion of SCHIP – in which the federal government pays matching funds to the individual states to administer their own versions of the program —threatening to veto legislation that would enlarge its scope."

One item of note that I did not see in your article on Rep. Fossella, is that on August 1, 2007 he actually voted against this bill and the same expansion of SCHIP that President Bush is also trying to prevent. Over fourteen paragraphs you cover the various angles of this from Fossella's purported opposition to Bush's veto threat to Gov. Spitzer's opposition, but never do you mention Fossella's actual vote.

I worry that we have allowed Rep. Fossella's communication team to craft the discussion on this issue as one of him being the champion of SCHIP while taking on President Bush. Yet maybe one of the best ways to take on Bush would have been to actually vote for this and then stood up for it, instead of trying to obfuscate the fact that when it comes to his job, crafting and voting on policy he has opposed SCHIP expansion.

I hope you have a chance to follow up on this article and expand on his NO vote. There is also plenty to cover on how the "expansion of SCHIP has received bipartisan support on Capitol Hill and in the statehouses" that other members of Congress were actually involved in.

Jonah
NY13blog

see also:
Fossella praises SCHIP after voting against it

Gov. Spitzer and Rep. Rangel unite to support SCHIP

.. Fossella doesn't do much.

via The Albany Project;

Governor Eliot Spitzer and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger joined together today in calling on President George Bush to reverse new rules instituted by his administration to deny thousands of children health care coverage.

snip

Earlier this week, on August 27, the Governor appeared with Congressman Charles Rangel to announce his intention to take legal action against CMS. The new rules contradict the provisions of the federal SCHIP law and were imposed without notice or the required comment period as required by the federal Administrative Procedures Act.

Where is Vito Fossella? Maybe skiing again instead of doing anything useful to get SCHIP passed.

AARP, Sen. Clinton and SCHIP

The AARP has released a statement thanking Rep. Dingell (who introduced the SCHIP bill Vito Fossella voted against) and Sen. Clinton "for working to ensure America’s children have access to affordable health care."

Not surprising Rep. Vito Fossella is not mentioned anywhere in that statement, in fact the AARP has gone so far as to criticize Fosssella and others;

We are disappointed by New York representatives who voted against strengthening health care for children and improving Medicare. As Congress leaves for vacation, some lawmakers chose to reject the opportunity to strengthen Medicare and provide health insurance for millions of eligible children who are without health coverage.

I mention all of this because had you not known, and if you are a reader of the SI Advance you may have been mislead after reading their recent article;
Clinton, Fossella unite in opposition to health benefit guidelines for poor, August 29. The article claims that Clinton and Fossella "unite" in some manner on this issue, which is true in only that they both are critical of new federal obstacles in place to prevent the implementation of SCHIP expansion. What the article fails to mention is that first the two are in no way working together despite being "united" and second, a point I have harped on for a bit now, Vito Fossella voted NO on the SCHIP bill. Sen. Clinton on the other hand supports the Senate version. How can the Advance claim they are united when they have exact opposite voting records on this? Both small details one might expect to be included in article had it been actual reporting as opposed to more free positive press for the Congressman.

SCHIP: Fossella's staff write LTE's

On August 1, 2007 Vito Fossella voted against SCHIP, which would provide insurance for children to low and moderate income families. Since then his spin team has been trying to portray this as a vote to protect Medicare. Yesterday his press secretary, Craig Donnor, and not Vito himself no surprise there, replied to a Letter to the Edtior in the Advance stating;

"Mr. O'Leary wrongly portrays this issue as a battle of rich against poor. The unfortunate reality is that the Democratic Congress pitted seniors against their grandchildren in a fight for access to needed health care. In contrast, Senate Democrats passed a bipartisan bill that expanded SCHIP and contained no cuts to Medicare." - Craig Donnor

Mr. Donnor would be well off reading the post here from last night about the AARP praise for the passage of the SCHIP bill that Fossella voted against, and lambasted specifically NY State members of Congress who voted against the bill. The AARP supports the SCHIP bill;

The bill strengthens Medicare's programs for low-income older Americans that help them get the health care and prescription drugs they need, while reducing excess payments to private Medicare Advantage plans. The CHAMP Act also reauthorizes and strengthens the SCHIP program, which already provides millions of children with affordable health coverage, and allows states to cover more than 5 million eligible uninsured low-income children who are not enrolled in the program.

Mr. Donnor and Rep. Fossella can continue to say they support SCHIP, but when the vote took place Fossella voted NO. When they then said the problem was not SCHIP it was Medicare cuts the AARP shut down those claims and state the bill strengthens Medicare.

SCHIP: Fossella vs. AARP

On August 1, 2007 Vito Fossella voted against the bill to reauthorize the SCHIP program. In his floor speech Fossella claims he supports SCHIP (by voting against it) and that in fact his only objection is to supposive Medicare reductions in the same bill;

"In my district alone it will reduce funds for Medicare Advantage by $58 million for the 38,000 enrollees in just the first year..."

(The above is my transcription of a portion of his one minute floor speech)

But before he goes on, let's turn to an expert in this area, say the AARP, American Association of Retired Persons;

"AARP applauds those representatives from New York who voted for the CHAMP Act," said AARP State Director Lois Aronstein. "These lawmakers put the needs of older Americans and low-income children ahead of special interests, and took the necessary action to help improve our health care system. SCHIP and Medicare are critical for the health care of this country and the CHAMP Act makes necessary improvements to both programs. We look forward to working with Senators Schumer and Clinton to put a bill on the President's desk before SCHIP expires in September."

Aronstein added: "We are disappointed by New York representatives who voted against strengthening health care for children and improving Medicare. As Congress leaves for vacation, some lawmakers chose to reject the opportunity to strengthen Medicare and provide health insurance for millions of eligible children who are without health coverage. When SCHIP reauthorization and Medicare legislation return to the floor for final approval, we hope those members will rethink their vote against such a critical bill." [via Press Release, Aug 2]

So you can listen to Fossella's claims that he supports SCHIP by voting against it, and that he is only concerned about Medicare, or you can listen to what AARP is saying about this bill improving Medicare. Your choice.


see more at:
Fossella and SCHIP

Fossella praises SCHIP after voting against it

on August 1, 2007, Rep. Vito Fossella voted against SCHIP, a series of state programs that provide insurance to children of low and moderate income families. The bill was HR 3162 Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act of 2007. This is Vito Fossella's vote against SCHIP. Remember that beacause Vito Fossella wants you to think otherwise;

via the SI Advance;

In a letter to federal officials, Fossella (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) warned that rules issued this month [from the President's administration] would be a blow to the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which provides states with federal matching funds to offer health coverage to children for families with incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. [bold text my own edit]

What is more of a blow to State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is the fac that Rep. Vito Fossella voted against the program on August 1, 2007.

"Unfortunately, new requirements would hurt states like New York from providing coverage to additional uninsured children," Fossella said in a statement. "A policy of denying access to health care to additional low-income children is misguided."

What hurts states from providing coverage is congressional representatives who vote against the program and try to cut its funding or end it altogether. Rep. Fossella has it right though that denying access to health care to low-income children is misguided, almost as misguided as his own vote against it and now his attempts to put blame elsewhere for hurdles to implement the program.

On August 1, 2007 Vito Fossella voted against SCHIP.
On August 29, 2007 he tells us the actions of the President's administration are harming the program, not his own vote against the program.


for more information on SCHIP and Fossella's vote against it see:
Bush and Fossella Oppose Insuring our Children

SCHIP and what Bush/Vito are doing to children's health insurance

I bow to someone a little more knowledgably than me on this subject, Elizabeth Hartline Green of the Drum Major Institute;

For anyone who has picked up a newspaper in the last few months, the news that President Bush (and Vito Fossella) has decided to make it much harder for states to expand eligibility for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program beyond 200 percent of the federal poverty level is unsurprising. Bush has been threatening to veto a bill (and Vito voted against the bill) that would increase funding and access to the program for a while now, claiming that it will encourage people to not use available private insurance options. The new policy will not allow states to extend coverage unless they enroll 95% of children who are eligible at 200% of the poverty level (something which no states have been able to do). If states do meet that eligibility percentage, they also must certify that every child whose family makes over 250% of the federal poverty level has been without insurance for at least a full year.

This leaves me with one question: why are we using the health of children as a pawn to make a political point about socialized medicine? Certainly, states should do everything they can to maximize enrollment, but that could be more easily done through easing the somewhat complicated process and increasing access to information. We probably aren't doing enough to reach all the children who are eligible for the program, and this group should be tapped out. But reaching all of these children will be exceedingly difficult to do without an increase in funding for the efforts (something Bush is not willing to allocate money towards). Should states who want to expand the program to cover more children really be banned from doing so? Besides this, there's the fact that several states, with federal approval, already cover children beyond the 200% line—this guideline is promising to wreak havoc on their current systems and on the families who will have coverage withdrawn.

bold text my own.

see also:
Bush and Fossella oppose insuring our children

Bush and Fossella oppose insuring our children

Apparently President Bush is going to step up and help Vito Fossella by vetoing the recent SCHIP bill that passed the House expanding health care coverage to millions of children.

via NY Times;

The Bush administration, continuing its fight to stop states from expanding the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program, has adopted new standards that would make it much more difficult for New York, California and others to extend coverage to children in middle-income families.

But clearly this is a partisan issue right? Democrats are trying to burden the government with additional costs and ALL republicans oppose this. Not so fast;

The Children’s Health Insurance Program has strong support from governors of both parties, including Republicans like Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Sonny Perdue of Georgia. When the Senate passed a bill to expand the program this month, 18 Republican senators voted for it, in defiance of a veto threat from Mr. Bush.

As you read that remember back when Vito Fossella tried selling that he was an Independent fighter for this district. Well once again, no surprise really, he sides with President Bush even in opposition to Republicans. Hooray for a Congressman who can finally stand up to uninsured children and just say no and focus on the needs of private companies who clearly are struggling.


see also:
More on Fossella refusing to insure children
Bush follows Fossella's lead, opposes insuring children
Why did Fossella vote against extending health care to our children?
Fossella votes against providing children with health insurance

More on Fossella refusing to insure children

Campaign for America's Future brings some coverage of Vito Fossella voting to deny health insurance to children through SCHIP programs.

How I spent my August recess: Rep Fossella edition;

But even though Fossella doesn't want his constituents to know about his vote, the NY13 Blog is spreading the word.

NY13 Blog notes that while Fossella doesn't want to expand coverage to uninsured kids, he's happy to welcome Wal-Mart to his district, a company that leaves more than half of its employees uninsured.

Bring in jobs with insufficient insurance. Provide no public recourse. Feel the compassion!

Fossella votes against providing children with health insurance

Children’s Health and Medicare Protection Act of 2007
Vote Passed (225-204, 4 Not Voting)

The House voted for this bill that would expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, adding up to 5 million children to the program.

Rep. Vito Fossella voted NO

Rep. Fossella is not one of the 12% in Staten Island who live in poverty and need this program. He also by way of his office in Congress has one of the best health insurance plans of any American. If only the poor constituents of his district were able to take $10,000 contributions from people like disgraced former Rep. Tom Delay (R-TX) like Fossella then this may not be an issue.