Starting Wednesday, millions of American children can have the health care they need, thanks a the bill signed into law by President Barack Obama. This fulfills one of the promises he made on the campaign trail.
It’s called the S-CHIP program, designed to provide health insurance to low-income families. Even better news: The bill continues coverage for seven million children already receiving care under the legislation and adds coverage for an additional four million children in need.
digs deeper into how this new law will help our local community.
President Obama calls this a key step toward his promise of universal health care coverage, while pediatricians here in Nevada call it an investment in our future. The biggest challenge Dr. Blaze Gusic experiences when treating his patients is health care coverage.
“It becomes very difficult to do my job when I have to lift to the back page of their chart to try to find out what insurance they have.”
A pediatrician with St. Rose Pediatrics, Dr. Gusic and his partners average 200 patients per day, a majority of who don’t have the right coverage. President Barack Obama signed a bi-partisan bill into law Wednesday enabling states to cover more than four million uninsured children, while continuing coverage for seven million others.
“I refuse to accept that millions of our kids fail to reach their full potential because we fail to meet their basic needs,” said Obama.
The bill will increase tobacco taxes to offset the increase in spending, estimated at more than $32 billion over four-and-a-half years. 23,000 children are already covered in Nevada. There will now be an additional 37,000 children who will be eligible.
Nevada Congresswoman Shelley Berkley voted for the passage of the bill.
“We need to take care of these children while they are growing up and…give them a family doctor that takes care of them while they are ill. And I think not only will children be healthier, but we are going to save a lot of tax payer dollars.”
Investing in our future is a plan Dr. Gusic believes in as well.
“I think if we invest in children at an early age and we take care of them and keep them healthy, we’re going to see a reduction in cost in older generations.”
The Children’s Health Insurance Program was created ten years ago. This signing re-authorizes the program through 2013. Forty Republicans voted for the bill and two Democrats voted against it. President George Bush vetoed the bill twice when he was in office.