Incubators of Future Generations

I work on federal health policy for my organization, and one of the issues I've been following since I started in late 2007 is the reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program. SCHIP, as it's known, is a joint federal-state program that covers kids who make too much for Medicaid. It's a great program and has been highly successful in covering kids who would otherwise be uninsured. Of course, President Bush vetoed the bill twice in 2007 because too many kids would get on the government dole and that would be one step closer to government-run health insurance (oh the horror! let's not forget that our veterans, returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, get government-run coverage from the VA and it's not only high-quality, it's cost-effective!).

Those two vetoes alone deserve a much longer rant from me, but I won't start because thankfully there's a new sheriff in town! Yes, that's right. One of the first bills signed into law by President Obama was the reauthorization and expansion of CHIP (they dropped the State from S-CHIP, so it's only CHIP now). Among other great provisions, newly arrived legal immigrant pregnant women and children can get coverage under Medicaid and CHIP. This is a great win for California, which has been covering this population using state-only funds since the law requiring a 5 year waiting period for new immigrants was passed in 1996. It's also one that our members advocated with their representatives last year at our annual lobbying even in DC.

On Tuesday, I attended a briefing and reception on the reauthorization of CHIP and heard from the person who oversees the program in California. She said that apart from covering legal immigrant children, undocumented pregnant women will still get coverage under Medicaid and CHIP (with state funds) because they are, and I quote, "considered vessels for future U.S. citizens." Now, I have no problem with the idea behind this because I believe it's better to have healthy pregnant women and, by extension, healthy future citizen babies. Costs to the healthcare system will be much higher if we don't cover these, ahem, incubators of U.S. citizens.

However, I couldn't help but laugh a little bit and wonder, am I too only good for my ability to incubate a future U.S. citizen (or French citizen, since Baby Berry will qualify for both)? Almost feels jingoistic when you think about it, as if the intention is to bear healthy citizens to build up the strength of our nation in the form of a new generation of soldiers. Okay, maybe not, but it sounds like it could be the plot for a new science fiction novel.

I'll get started writing that right away.