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The Bioethics Post: Volume 2, Issue 1
October 2007
CHIPPING AWAY AT THE UNINSURED
Spotlight on the S-CHIP Debate
The U.S. House and Senate last week passed a negotiated, bipartisan bill to reauthorize and expand funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Forty-five Republicans voted for the SCHIP compromise bill when the House passed it, 265-159. The Senate passed the measure 67-29, with 18 Republicans voting with all of the Democrats. The Senate vote is considered veto-proof.
President Bush has proposed a $5 billion expansion, much less than the $35 billion package drafted by Senate Democrats and Republicans, and far below the $50 billion expansion originally approved by the House. Facing an expected veto, proponents of the compromise bill are now going on the offensive. Read more.
Eight states support suit vs U.S. over kids' health
In related news, eight states plan to join a lawsuit to stop the federal government from imposing new rules concerning the existing State Children's Health Insurance Program. The states contend that the new rules will force them to cut children from the health insurance plan. The new rules will also require children who have no health benefits to wait a year before joining the state plans. States would have to cover 95 percent of poverty-level families before enrolling more middle-income children, a requirement they say they cannot meet.
Highlights for Discussion
Gunfight at the S-CHIP Corral
EDITORIAL: The latest compromise bill gives states needed time and assistance to devise the best ways to insure children from middle-income families, and ought to be supported. This New York Times editorial argues that the number of uninsured children jumped by a startling 710,000 last year, and that nearly half of the increase was in families with incomes between 200 percent and 399 percent of poverty — the same group that opponents of the bill say are adequately insured.
Do state health programs like S-CHIP somehow fail children?
EDITORIAL: With claims that 45 percent of all U.S. children were covered by either Medicaid or SCHIP in 2005 (compared with 28 percent in 1998), some conservatives argue that programs like S-CHIP should be restored to their original intent. John O’Shea says that patients with Medicaid and SCHIP as their source of payment are twice as likely as the uninsured and four times as likely as those with private insurance to visit a hospital emergency room, and are crowding an already overburdened emergency medical system.
Universal health care in the U.S. wouldn't wreck cancer treatment
EDITORIAL: The S-CHIP debate is playing out against the backdrop of the larger battle over universal health care. Now some are asking about the relationship between universal health coverage and cancer survival rates. Can the United States afford more government-funded medicine without losing its edge in cancer treatment? In this editorial, Timothy Noah writes that the goal of universal health care isn't to lengthen cancer survival rates, but to give more people access to medical treatment.
Should terminally ill patients have the right to take partially tested drugs?
Around half a million people will die from cancer related causes in the Unites States this year, and many are given a hopeless prognosis. For most, the option of participating in clinical trials of new drugs that offer some promise helps them remain optimistic, but most cancer patients are unable to participate.
Death and dying: When is it time to let go?
As medical progress enables doctors to extend an endangered life to the hard-to-determine point where they may actually only be dragging out death, this online piece discusses how end-of-life issues top the list of ethical dilemmas many hospitals face.
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Medical care often inaccessible to disabled patients
A national survey finds that people with disabilities have trouble using X-ray machines, rehab equipment, scales and scanning devices, like MRIs. But the most common problem is more simple -- getting onto a doctor's exam table.
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Physician depicted in Moore's Sicko discusses aftermath of denying heart transplant to patient for economic reasons
Linda Peeno is the Louisville physician-turned-patient advocate depicted in this summer's film Sicko. She testified before Congress in 1996, during the height of the U.S. debate over patients' rights versus HMOs. This story showcases the aftermath of Dr. Peeno's involvement in a fateful insurance decision to deny someone a life-saving operation.
