oregon measure 50 and schip thoughts on

Oregon Measure 50 and SCHIP - Thoughts on Children's Health Care

So, there has been lots of talk concerning children's health lately.

To summarize:

Measure 50: Would modify the Oregon Constitution to add an 80 cent tax

on cigarettes and use the money to pay for children's health. Would

not create any new government agencies, but would add staff, so there

would be more bureaucracy than now.

SCHIP: would expand plans to provide government assistance for health

insurance for children. Families making $80k a year would still be

eligible for government assistance. President Bush is proposing a much

more modest increase in government assistance.

The Blue Dog View:

I'm not opposed to the idea of government helping provide for

children's health for people who truly can't afford it. But government

assistance for those making $80k a year? That's hard for me to swallow

as a fiscal centrist. the other issue I have is that I think the

health system we have in this country is really broken. And I don't

think you fix a financially flawed system by simply throwing more

government money at it. I haven't heard anything in either one of

these proposals about actually making changes to the health care

system itself, so to me adding more government money into the system