It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped. – Hubert H. Humphrey
On the moral test of government, the Irvine City Council approved a plan to help children without health insurace obtain coverage. The city estimates this number to be about 1,750 kids. The city will hire three specialists with salaries of less tha $50K annually to help low-income families enroll in state and federal programs for health insurance. It was a 3-2 vote with the progressive councilmajority voting in favor of the plan and Republican minority Christina Shea and Stephen Choi voting no. More after the flip:
Elysse James’s Irvine World News story attributed an interesting fact from Shea and Choi: both are against this proposal but both are in favor of helping children find health care “in a more cost-effective way.” How? No propoals. No counter ideas. No options that will cost less than $150K a year unless you reduce the number of workers to two people or one. Nothing.
So if you’re a kid in Irvine without health insurance, please contact Council members Shea and Choi at Irvine City Hall to find out what their plan might be; but prepare to be on hold for a long time because there isn’t one.
It sounds a lot like Shea’s support for mass transit — she says she’s for it but offers no details whatsoever except to criticize or oppose any plan by Irvine’s progressive majority.
Council member Sukhee Kang took the plan a step further – to develop a program to cover kids not eligible for state or federal programs, or Cal-Optima’s Heathly Kids program or Kaiser’s Child Health Plan. The Irvine Children’sHealth Program (I-CHP) would provide assistance to local Irvine families with incomes of less than $62,000 annually. It’s ideas and initiatives such as this that convince me that Sukhee has the vision and leadership to be an effective mayor in Irvine. Read more about his I-CHP plan here.
I guess if you don’t want the city to become a nanny, you are somehow an evil person according to Dan. Kudos to Christina and Steven for voting against more big government.
How is this bigger government Allan if the staffers will help poor sick kids use federal and state healthcare programs plus that of healthcare companies? The salaries of the three workers divided by the number of children affected amounts of $80.11 each. Nice to see that the only compassion Republicans care about is their wallets and not in the children of this city.
And they support healthcare for poor kids but want it done more cost-effectively? How are they doing to beat $80 a kid? Its all about voting the opposite of whatever the council majority wants.
Irvine has doubled in size since Shea was Mayor; hate to break it to you, but lots of the newbies are independents and liberals like me.