Obama signs SCHIP into Law

Last Thursday, February 5th, I was overjoyed when I read in the morning paper that President Obama signed the bill reauthorizing the SCHIP into law. SCHIP is the State Children's Health Insurance Program. The law is designed primarily to help children from families that do not currently have health insurance. Uninsured children under the age of 19, whose families earn up to $36,200 a year (for a family of four) are eligible. For the 45 million in the United States that currently do not have health insurance, this is great news indeed. By the way, this SCHIP law had been vetoed by George Bush twice during his administration. I wonder what he was thinking.

I think the signing of this SCHIP reauthorization into law is a great first step towards the ultimate goal: Universal Health Care reform in the United States. Perhaps you are not aware that the United States is the only industrialized nation in the world that does not guarantee access to health care as a right of citizenship. 28 industrialized nations have single payer universal health care systems, while 1 (Germany) has a multipayer universal health care system like President Clinton proposed for the United States. I really wish that Universal Health Care in the United States would become a reality very soon.



Here are President Obama's remarks transcribed, which are really, really good.

Do you agree with Obama on SCHIP?