James Scibilia – 5/13/07

This page was last updated on May 13, 2007.

Children need health coverage; James Scibilia, M.D., FAAP; Beaver County Times; May 13, 2007.

As an alleged doctor, keep in mind Mr. Scibilia would benefit from the programs he advocates below. That may or may not be why he wrote this letter, but it’s something we need to remember when people write letters like this.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Pennsylvania took a giant leap forward in improving the health and well being of our children with the enactment of Cover All Kids last fall.”

[RWC] BS.

“The new law expanded the commonwealth’s Children’s Health Insurance Program to provide access to affordable health insurance for all uninsured children through age 18. The expansion helped maintain Pennsylvania’s status as a leading advocate for children’s health.

“Health insurance matters because children who have insurance are more likely to get appropriate care for chronic medical conditions, receive prompt care for acute problems and avoid unnecessary and costly emergency room visits.

“The success of CHIP in Pennsylvania is dependent on a strong state and federal partnership. The federal State Children’s Health Insurance Program - or SCHIP - provides the framework and the resources for the partnership.

“Currently, federal funds represent 68 cents of every $1 spent on CHIP coverage in Pennsylvania.”

[RWC] It’s not “federal funds.” It’s federal taxpayer dollars confiscated from our paychecks, pension checks, et cetera.

“Enacted in 1997, SCHIP is scheduled for reauthorization by Congress this year. Currently, CHIP covers about 154,000 children across the commonwealth.

“However, more needs to be done to ensure the remaining 133,000 kids without health coverage will be protected. In Beaver County alone, about 5,400 children are uninsured. Whether and how we can cover these children in the future depends on how Congress acts right now.

“What will it take? Congress must fulfill its pledge in the federal budget to invest $50 billion above existing funding over the next five years in children’s health coverage.”

[RWC] Note to Mr. Scibilia. “Invest” and “spend” are not synonyms.

“This will give states adequate resources to meet current demand, sign up more eligible but unenrolled children, as well as expand SCHIP programs to cover more children in need of insurance.”

[RWC] As most op-ed pieces like this, Mr. Scibilia equates healthcare insurance with healthcare. Just because a person doesn’t have insurance doesn’t mean he doesn’t receive healthcare.

“To do anything less amounts to ignoring the gains made under the state and federal CHIP partnership, and allowing children’s health coverage to deteriorate.”

[RWC] Whom did Mr. Scibilia not mention? No mention is made of a parent’s obligation to provide for his/her children, and this includes healthcare. It is not your neighbor’s responsibility to pay for your kids’ healthcare and it’s not fair to require him to. After all, he has to care for his own family. If you can’t afford to take care of your kids without taxpayer assistance, you should not have children until you can.

Government should get out of the healthcare business completely. The money this would put back into taxpayer pockets could be used by private charities to help people who really need help. We need to get away from the mentality that taxpayers are there to bail us out of poor life choices.