ordable health care for everyone. How terrible.

Bush is threatening to veto if the bill passes, but some Republican senators are ignoring him in favor of insuring kids. We still don't have enough votes to override Bush's veto, though—and the Senate vote is just days away.

Can you help win the biggest health care victory in decades? Clicking here will add your name to the petition:

http://pol.moveon.org/kidshealth/o.pl?id=10849-1866460-bzU34F&t=3

After you sign, please forward this email to friends with kids—and any email lists you're on for PTA groups, childcare, or kids' sports teams. We're teaming up with our friends at the Service Employees International Union and others to collect petition signatures. We'll deliver your signature and comments just as key lawmakers are deciding how to vote on our kids' health.

For the last decade, a public program called the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) has provided health insurance to many low-income kids. Congress must renew the program by September or it will disappear.

But Democratic leaders are fighting to do even better—expanding the program to include millions of children still not covered. "There are more kids without health insurance than there are kids in the first and second grades," said the Democratic senator in charge of the bill.2

They'll pay for it by cracking down on for-profit health insurance companies who are ripping off the current system or taxing tobacco.

This bill won't bring us affordable health care for everyone, but it's a step in the right direction. Just look at why President Bush is so worried: "My concern is that when you expand eligibility...you're really beginning to open up an avenue for people to switch from private insurance to the government."3

Bush has called this the "beginning salvo" of the health care fight.4 Please sign our petition to make sure we win this first round. The vote is this week.

Click here to add your name to the petition:

http://pol.moveon.org/kidshealth/o.pl?id=10849-1866460-bzU34F&t=4

Thank you for all you do.

–Noah, Laura, Marika, Tanya, and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team

Monday, July 23rd, 2007

Sources:

1. "SCHIP Reauthorization: Key Questions and Answers to Understand the Current Debate," Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, July 20, 2007

http://www.kff.org/medicaid/7675.cfm

2. "Senate panel OKs child health bill," Associated Press, July 19, 2007

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/politics/4983518.html

3. "Bush: No Deal On Children's Health Plan," Washington Post, July 19, 2007

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2821&id=10849-1866460-bzU34F&t=5

4. "Senate panel backs youth health," Los Angeles Times, July 20, 2007

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2822&id=10849-1866460-bzU34F&t=6

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