How to Win Healthcare for Children

[Don1]

How can healthcare for children win in Congress?

Support an amendment to the child healthcare bill that states that unborn babies are also entitled to healthcare.

Then, go get some popcorn, sit back and watch the Republican Party implode.

[JDPriestly]

1. Very good idea.

Because prenatal care is the key to good health in the first years of life, and because every child has the right to be wanted.

[Don1]

2. Thanks.

You're right pre-natal is important. If right-to-lifers really believe in what they say, then they will certainly be offended not to have recognition that 8 month old babies should have healthcare and therefore live. When their Republican representatives and/or George Bush votes against it, their heads will explode like the guy in the Dave Chapelle video.

[JDPriestly]

3. Providing pre-natal care also has a psychological effect on the mother.

I base this on my experience as a pregnant woman in Europe where pregnant women were given financial incentives to get pre-natal care. The first months of pregnancy can be very difficult for women. Contact with a doctor starting in that period is a form of positive reinforcement for the mother. It is reassuring and removes a lot of the fear that a woman may have about her pregnancy and how her pregnancy and her child will affect her life. The first ultrasound of your first child is a thrilling experience for many women. If right-wingers want to discourage abortions, they should provide pre-natal care for all babies and pregnant women and give incentives to women who get proper medical for themselves and their babies during pregnancy and in the first years of life.

This is just elementary common sense. We Americans are way behind in taking care of the health of our children.

[Vinca]

4. That's actually a good idea, but you'll have to figure out how the embryo

gets healthcare without giving it to the mom. After all, she's an adult and freepers definitely don't want adults to have healthcare.

[UstreamTV]

5. agree

i agree 100%

[Don1]

6. Not exactly.

A full third of Christian evangelists who used to support Bush have been very upset by his economic decisions for the last couple of years. I saw this on John Stewart about a year ago, I think, when he interviewed one of the heads of a major Christian organization. Essentially, these people feel bamboozled by the whole "compassionate conservative" bit. The fact that Bush vetoed the healthcare for children bill probably has them quite upset and my guess is that adding protection for unborn babies to the bill would be the straw that breaks the camel's proverbial back. Yes, you have a point that SOME freepers and certainly some Republicans in Congress would frame this as giving healthcare to "welfare queens," but many (maybe a third by then) citizens would want to openly revolt against their Party. SCHIP even in its current state had 44 of 200 Republicans voting to override the President's veto. That's 22% of corrupt bastards giving in to the pressure. The percentage of the actual base is probably higher.