National health care group tries to have it both ways

While sifting through my morning blog reading today, I came across an interesting post at Lucid Idiocy; the political blog of Macon Telegraph reporter Travis Fain. In the entry "More on the 8th District", Fain talks about a new ad campaign being launched by the American Health Care Association and the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care.

Below are the ads that these two groups are running in the 8th and 12th Congressional districts:

The ad on the left is being run in Jim Marshall's district and the ad on the right is being run in John Barrow's district.

According to the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care, they "initiated an aggressive TV and print campaign in Congressional districts across the country [...] In response to the $2.7 billion cuts to Medicare that were passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in the Children’s Health and Medicare Protection Act (CHAMP Act).

"The long term care profession strongly supports expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). However, this support should not be funded by raiding the Medicare funding that vulnerable seniors depend upon for quality nursing home care in facilities across the nation," warned Alan Rosenbloom, President of the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care ("the Alliance"). Nursing homes have achieved significant quality improvements in recent years. Through this ad campaign, we are ensuring that lawmakers understand the House-passed SCHIP expansion plan would undermine and even reverse those quality improvements. This law would harm not only the 1.7 million Americans who rely on quality nursing home care, but also the hundreds of thousands of dedicated caregivers around the country who provide care and services." [Source: 8/22/2007 AQNHC Press Release "Targeting $2.7 Billion Medicare Cuts, Ad Effort Urges Lawmakers to Stand Up for Quality Nursing Home Care"]

Much like Rick Goddard, it seems as if "the Alliance" needs a refresher on the politics of the legislative process. Sometimes Senators and Representatives vote for bills because while they may disagree with a particular section of the legislation, they agree with the overall intent of the bill and feel that their vote in favor of the measure will benefit more people than it will hurt.

The bill that this health care group is bringing attention to is House Resolution 3162, the Children's Health and Medicare Protection (CHAMP) Act of 2007. The overall intent of the legislation is to preserve and expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP), which happens to be the parent program of Georgia's popular PeachCare for Kids program. When the U.S. House voted on this legislation, it was an almost party-line vote; 220 Democrats and 5 Republicans voted for it and 194 Republicans and 10 Democrats voted against it. [Source: House Roll Call Vote #787]

I believe for the 220 Democrats who voted for the bill, they were voting to expand access to health care for America's children, and I believe it is very disingenuous (as well as misleading and irresponsible) for an organization to characterize a vote for expanding health care to children as a vote to cut Medicare. Once again, the intent of the CHAMP Act is to provide America's future with health insurance, and I believe that ensuring that our nation's future is healthy helps more Americans than it harms.