Override his veto.

Update: MoveOn.org is helping organize events across the country to urge Congress to override President Bush’s “reckless veto.”

The gist: President Bush has vetoed an important bill that would have helped expand insurance coverage for uninsured children. The only hope now is for fifteen additional Republicans to vote to support the bill in the House, which would join the Senate with enough votes to override the President’s veto. Please take a moment to visit the Campaign for Children’s Health Care, which has information on how to contact your representatives in Congress, and urge them to override the President’s veto. They have also set up a toll-free number to help you reach your representatives at 800 828-0498.

The whole story: I was about a year old when my father passed away. My mother raised my brother and I with the partial United Mine Workers pension my father had qualified for. It wasn’t until my last year of junior high school, almost ten years ago now, that President Clinton’s State Children’s Health Insurance Program began covering uninsured children in West Virginia. For the first time since my father passed away, I had medical coverage.

All of this to say that, this morning, President Bush vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have allowed state CHIP programs across the country to cover more uninsured children. It is estimated that at least nine million children in the United States are uninsured, but the current program covers only about six million of those kids.

In my case, I was covered under West Virginia CHIP for a little under three years, until my brother turned 18 and was no longer counted in whatever formula determined we were eligible for coverage. My brother turning 18 didn’t change the fact that my mother still couldn’t afford to spend $150 a month for insurance when she had barely $1,000 a month in income. There’s no doubt that the bill President Bush vetoed this morning would have covered millions more American kids who go without basic medical care each year, perhaps because their older brother finally turned eighteen, or maybe because their widowed mother receives a few dollars over whatever bureaucratic income limit defines “poor.”

The Associated Press wrote this morning that “some Republicans feared [President Bush's veto] could carry steep risks for their party in next year’s elections.” The AFP called it a “politically risky” move. With 72% of Americans supporting the bill to expand CHIP, I think their fears are probably pretty prescient. I don’t often agree with Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, but he said this morning that “It’s unfortunate that the president has chosen to be on what, to me, is clearly the wrong side of this issue.” I hope about fifteen of his Republican colleagues in the House recognize that, and get on the right side.