Abbott Tests Waters For 2010 Lt. Gov Run With Asinine Child Insurance Proposal
By Vince Leibowitz on Jan 10, 2008 in 2008 Texas Elections ![[Post to Twitter]](/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter.png){kind=icon}
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Attorney General Greg Abbott took the first step toward testing the water for his run for the Lieutenant Governorship in 2010 yesterday by announcing a statewide private sector health insurance program for uninsured kids that is perhaps one of the most asinine public policy proposals ever to leave the mouth of a statewide official in Texas.
His announcement, made at the right-wing Texas Public Policy Foundation’s annual meeting in Austin. The Austin-American Statesman has more details on the program itself:
“This idea addresses a pressing need for children in Texas in a way that keeps a watchful eye on taxpayer dollars,” said Abbott, who outlined the program Wednesday at an annual meeting of the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation.
[...]
Abbott said a private insurance company would contract with the state to cover a pool of children. A court could order parents to buy the private insurance based on their ability to pay. The court could order the insurance premiums withheld from a parent’s paycheck.
Parents who provide proof of insurance could opt out. [Emphasis added]
This is nothing more than a great way to send kickbacks to your friends in the insurance lobby, of which Abbott no doubt has many. Of course, in order to insure that your friends in the insurance industry are getting the money they so richly desire to line their pockets, you’ll make it mandatory and give the judicial branch the authority to enforce it through wage garnishment.
Of course, the thing that Abbott doesn’t say here is that if the judicial branch has the authority to force parents into a private insurance scheme forced upon them by the state, that means–you guessed it–civil contempt is in play!
What does that mean? If you don’t comply, you could go to jail. If a judge orders you to pay before instituting wage garnishment and you don’t pay, then a judge can not only garnish your wages but send you to jail in a very similar manner in which child support evaders are sentenced to jail.
This is no way to solve the state’s insurance crisis. For one thing, Abbott says nothing about this being a low-cost program, like CHIP. On the contrary, since it is through private insurance companies and not the state, it will probably be outlandishly expensive.
The way to solve this problem–the one that right-wing radicals like Abbott don’t want to hear–is to put more money into the CHIP program at the state (and federal) level. It is to make it less complicated (remember the permanent wall?) for qualifying families to actually participate in the program.
Abbott’s solution to the problem is about like Jonathan Swift’s modest proposal that the 18th Century Irish solve their economic woes by selling their children to rich people as food products.
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