Visa®. The new health care system.

US Senators Mel Martinez (R-Fl) and Jim DeMint (R-SC) have introduced "compromise" legislation to the State Children's Health Insurance Program since the original bill to expand the program was vetoed by George W. Bush.

The debate in Washington over the State Children Health Insurance program (SCHIP) has reached a fever pitch. Even as the House of Representatives has sustained President Bush's veto, congressional Democrats and their supporters on the outside vow to pass the same bill again and force a repeat performance. This will no doubt be accompanied by the same kind of propaganda we have seen over the last few weeks, including the shameless use of children as political props.

A Republican is complaining about propaganda. That's a little rich. Martinez is formerly Bush's Housing and Urban Development Secretary. Want to discuss how much good HUD did during that period?

A profile of Martinez that ran last year in Orlando magazine derided the importance of HUD, and quoted from a National Journal report card of Cabinet members that gave Martinez an overall C, but an A for carrying out the president’s political agenda.

Anyway, what are Martinez and DeMint proposing?

Rather than expand the government-run SCHIP program to cover middle-income children in homes making more than $80,000 a year (which will include over 70% of America's children), our plan reauthorizes SCHIP to ensure poor children continue to receive health care. The plan goes further to tackle the problem of the uninsured by providing a tax credit to middle class families for their children's health insurance.

Nice move. To get the tax credit you must purchase private health insurance. So who gets that tax credited money? Not the taxpayer. Say, insurance company.

This would allow families to purchase health plans for their kids that they choose, rather than being handed a one-size-fits-all Washington-run plan. Another benefit of this approach is that unlike the Democrat's SCHIP proposal, our plan would not force children off private insurance and onto government plans. By turning patients into shoppers we will inject more choice and competition into the health care market resulting in more competitive prices for health care premiums.

Milton Friedman would be so proud.

All told, the tax credit approach provides health care to 10.5 million children whereas the Democrat SCHIP plan forces 1.2 million kids onto government rolls. Through this innovative approach we offer better coverage to far more.

Bovine Scatology. In the 2006 fiscal year alone 6.9 million children received coverage. The bill to expand that coverage (HR 976) would have provided coverage for 4 million additional children by 2012. That's almost 11 million receiving coverage through a state single-payer system.

But why quibble? A Pennsylvania-based health insurance company has the answer. Give the gift of an ambulance ride, a visit to the doctor or even a stay in the hospital to someone for Christmas.

Highmark Inc. launched a new product today, the Healthcare Visa^® Gift Card. The card provides an easy way for consumers and recipients to cover out-of-pocket expenses related to maintaining personal health and wellness.

This first-of-its kind Healthcare Gift Card can be used for a variety of purchases, including co-pays for doctor visits, prescriptions, vision care, dental care, health club memberships and elective procedures. The use of the card is limited to health and wellness merchants where Visa debit cards are accepted.

Geez, that makes it hard to decide, doesn't it? Do I give a gift card from Home Depot™ so that Uncle Bob can get that fancy new sliding compound miter saw, or should I give a Healthcare Visa® Gift Card to deal with that looming myocardial infarction to which I am sure he will finally succumb? Is there a chance one will give you a tax credit?

I don't fault Highmark or Visa for this new product, but the when a national health care system is little more than a market commodity, sometimes the compound miter saw wins.

And, there's this little line from DeMint:

It's time that we be very honest with ourselves about the debate we are engaged in. We are either going to move down the path of Washington-run health care that has proven disastrous in countless European nations ...

Now, who's propagandizing? DeMint falls a tad short in his editorial by failing to name one European country. But the fact that he and Martinez are scrambling to come up with something, anything, to push back against the demand for increased single-payer health care indicates that at least one country does have a disasterous system - the U.S.

In Canada or Europe the debate over their health care crises focuses on rising costs or deteriorating services. It is never reduced to an "us" and "them" situation. Or if it is, the "them" in the Canadian or European debate means the government.

"Them" in the United States health care wrangle means the Medicaid and Medicare recipients plus the working poor. "Us" is the blue-collar and white-collar worker, already staggering under tax burdens the wealthy are excused from paying.

Unless someone gives you one of those new Visa® Gift Cards.