| By Bob Weaver
President Bush's expected veto of the popular children's health insurance program (CHIPS) will jeopardize coverage for 25,000 low- and moderate-income West Virginia children, including a significant number of children in Calhoun County.
While the administration is saying the Bush plan will improve service, the veto will crush the program.
It is one of several showdowns expected on the national health care issue.
Bush has stated he would veto the extension because he believes it is a step toward government health care.
The CHIPS program essentially provides coverage for children ineligible or too poor to be on Medicaid.
The program, according to supporters, has measured up to expectations, delivering service with a $35 billion dollar price tag.
West Virginia has one of the highest levels of poverty among children in the nation.
The overlay is the coming political battle to try and fix a national health care system that is excluding most working class Americans.
The private health care system in the US, which relies on massive amounts of cash from taxpayers, has been broken for years and continues to get worse.
About 50 million Americans have no insurance and at least that many have sub-standard or at risk coverage currently provided by employers.
The private cost of insuring a family with BC/BS is about $15,000 a year.
America's "working poor" have generally been eliminated from reasonable coverage.
"There's nothing in the world more important to our future as a nation and state than the health and well-being of our children," said Renate Pore, director of the West Virginia Health Kids and Families Coalition.
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