Gore Vows to Expand Health Care for Children

Vice President Al Gore opened his convention-week journey toward Los Angeles on Sunday by campaigning here for universal health insurance for children, one of his highest priorities.

At a town hall meeting in a children’s hospital, Gore vowed to reach that goal by the end of his first term as president.

“The top priority must be to make a national commitment to give high-quality health care to every single child in America within these next four years,” the vice president said. “That’s one of my goals, a part of my mission.

“No fight is more important than the fight to make sure every child in America has the chance to grow up healthy and strong,” he said.

Gore’s plan to expand medical insurance coverage to children rests largely on the expansion of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which was enacted by Congress in 1997 and is funded by $24 billion over five years.

Gore said that one way to expand CHIP enrollment is by removing bureaucratic and eligibility obstacles that he said cause many to “get discouraged” and not even apply.

Among the town hall’s participants at Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital were Rob Reiner, the actor, movie director and health activist, and Dr. Irwin Redlener, a New York-based pediatrician.

Gore said he would offer financial incentives to states that increase CHIP enrollment.

Under the program, state enrollment rates have varied greatly. All told, 2 million children have been signed up.

“We have gone part of the way to where we need to be,” Gore said. “But there are still 11 million children who don’t have it, and they need it.”

To achieve broader coverage, Gore also would expand CHIP eligibility to children in families with incomes up to 250% of the poverty level (about $41,000 for a family of four).

In addition, Gore said Sunday that he intends to go “the next step”--by giving coverage to the parents of children whose family incomes are 250% of the rate of poverty or lower.

In promoting children’s health insurance, Gore often has pointed out that Texas, under Gov. George W. Bush, has the second-worst rate of uninsured children, after Arizona.

But the vice president Sunday twice passed on the opportunity to criticize his Republican rival’s record in Texas after Reiner interrupted him to ask, theatrically, about the Lone Star State.

“I don’t think he felt that this was the right venue to do this kind of thing in,” Reiner said later.

Gore’s appearance here is part of a weeklong “Going the Distance” tour that ends Wednesday afternoon with his arrival in Los Angeles.

Each day this week, he is scheduled to participate in an event in a key battleground state that dovetails with the theme-of-the-day inside Staples Center.

Among Gore’s pre-arrival events is a high-profile passing-of-the-baton appearance with President Clinton in Monroe, Mich., on Tuesday afternoon.

Today, Gore plans to hold a forum in Independence, Mo., on his plan to reform Social Security and Medicare. Later in the day, at a St. Louis rally, Gore is to be joined by Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, his running mate.