The health care bill and child abuse.

[JDPriestly]

I want a health care bill that is single payer or at least offers a public option. So I am not really pleased with this bill.

But, I am very happy that this bill will require health care insurance companies to cover every child in America regardless of pre-existing conditions and that it will make health care for children more affordable in the end. I had wonderful pre-natal care, and my young children had great care we were living in Europe when they were born and during their early years.

In Europe, we were rewarded with small amounts of money, financial incentives the Germans called "Kindergeld" if we visited the doctor at certain intervals during pregnancy and then took our children for check-ups at regular intervals after birth.

I remember that before the birth of my second child, the local pediatrician called in all the mothers who were due in September and gave us advice about how to raise our children. She warned us about the effects of corporal punishment on children and told us that since our children would be born in September we should be very careful not to start them in school before they were ready. She advised us to wait a year so that our September babies would have an easier time in their classes. I followed her advice. It was really helpful.

In our society, we see the results of child abuse everywhere -- excessive corporal punishment, neglect, psychological abuse including humiliation, confusing signals about acceptable behavior and dysfunctional parent-child relationships. The abusive treatment of our children causes many, of our most serious problems -- gangs, drug addiction and alcoholism, unhappy marriages, greed, abuses of authority and power just to name a few. The dirty secret is that abuse occurs in families in all socio-economic groups. Remember the Menendez brothers? Children in poor families end up in dependency courts and Juvenile Hall. Rich kids end up in drug rehab and fancy private schools that operate like prisons. Rich or poor, the real cause of their problems is often (not always) child abuse. A child's home should be a comfort zone. But for many of our children, home is more like a war zone.

It is my hope that this health care insurance reform bill will give more children access to good pediatric care. I hope that it will empower pediatricians to teach parents skills for dealing with their children, identify troubled children and families and decrease child abuse.

The bill has a lot of shortcomings, but it also has the potential to help a lot of people.

[blue neen]

1. Very, very good points.

It's not something that I even thought of previously, but IMHO you are correct. :)

[ShortnFiery]

2. That's flawed logic.

A man that financially provides for his family, yet comes home and beats his wife also has pluses and minuses.

However, on the whole, he's not GOOD for the family. :(

Thousands more people will go into bankruptcy and we are forestalling the hope of a single payer system by feeding the Insurance Cartel with BILLIONS more so they can "pay off" all of our legislators.

[RKP5637]

3. Many have children IMO that should never have had them in the first place, and

that is quite sad for all concerned. I feel that is often out of selfishness, mistakes and /or societal pressure, everyone should have 2.5 kids.

[subterranean]

4. Wow, they actually paid you to take your kids in for checkups?

How cool! :hippie:

Things like that just make you realize how far we have to go in this country.

[JDPriestly]

5. Yes. You got paid to take your baby and infant to the doctor.

It worked.