July 23, 2007

It's all about the children. Except when it isn't. The Beltway catfight over the prospective expansion of SCHIP---health insurance for kids in lower-income families earning too much for Medicaid eligibility---is attracting millions of dollars in lobbying expenditures by various groups truly passionate in their concern for the kids.

Except that some of the K Street/media/fancy lunch/campaign dollars are being spent in favor of a vast expansion of SCHIP, while another part is opposed. So: Who could possibly be against The Children? Well, a lot of people, as it turns out.

The administration of El Presidente W loves, just loves, children, but is uncomfortable with the proposed increase in spending---from $25 billion over five years to $50 billion or $60 billion, depending on who is screaming most loudly at the moment---and who would have predicted that given the administration's record on spending since 2001? Then there is the small matter of this expansion of SCHIP representing a huge step forward (or backward) in the advance of schalami schlice schocialism in the U.S. health care system. The administration is opposed, with very good reason, but just try to explain why in a 30-second sound bite.

The American Medical Association just loves the kids; and, oh, by the way, it also loves the provision that eliminates a 10 percent cut in Medicare reimbursment rates due to take effect January 1. The AARP loves the kids too, as well as the proposed reduction in payments to Medicare Advantage Plans, one result of which would be a withering away of such private-sector plans and thus more political power for the AARP.

The unions just love the children, and since expansion of SCHIP has and will continue to enroll more and more adults---we're all children now---health care increasingly will be financed by taxpayers and thus taken off the table in negotiations with employers, yielding higher pre-tax wages, and what could possibly be better for the kids?

The health insurance industry loves the kids more than anyone. And what could be worse for the kids than a cut in payments for Medicare Advantage plans (see above), and so the insurance industry is going to spend some bucks on political ads too.

And then there is Big Phrma. You'd think that it is hard enough dealing with the FDA and fighting Congressional attempts to impose price controls on medicine without getting sucked into yet another battle, and you'd be right: Phrma supports SCHIP---we're talking about the kids here, buddy---but doesn't seem to know whether it wants a slightly bigger SCHIP (El Presidente W) or a vastly bigger one (the Beltway Establishment).

Let's face it: When it comes to The Children, all voices should be heard, no argument is too disingenuous for a respectful hearing, and all roads lead toward a world in which the elites transform all of us into Beltway supplicants, which is to say, children. It's enough to make me cry.

Posted by Benjamin Zycher at July 23, 2007 10:43 AM

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