Calvert - Thoughtless and Stubborn on SCHIP

Dear Friends and Volunteers,

Ken Calvert is wrong in his stubborn opposition to reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

Health care costs are bankrupting families. SCHIP-funded state programs like California’s Healthy Families provide relief to families facing ruinous health-related costs by providing affordable quality coverage for children. Children in poverty will be covered, and children whose families are being pushed into poverty will be covered as well. SCHIP is an urgently needed response to the challenge of out-of-control health care costs.

It is disingenuous for Rep. Calvert to oppose expanded health care for needy children—thousands of whom live in Riverside County—because of his speculation that tobacco tax receipts may no longer cover SCHIP expenditures in future years. One fact is certain and not speculative—in recent years Congressman Calvert has supported President Bush’s proposals that have plunged our nation into enormous debt and provided tax breaks for the most wealthy, no-bid contracts, and endless spending for pet projects. It is ironic that now, when it comes to the health care needs of the hard-pressed middle class, some congressmen of the minority party have re-discovered fiscal restraint—and are willing to risk denying care to the neediest among us—while at the same time maintaining their personal access to one of the best health plans in the nation.

Bill Hedrick