Using NewsHour Extra Feature Stories

Overview: NewsHour Extra features stories can help students identify and interpret key issues in current events. This activity anticipates one class period, but the follow-up essay might be assigned as homework, or in another period.

Warm Up: Use initiating questions to introduce the topic and find out how much your students know.

Main Activity: Have students read NewsHour Extra's feature story and answer the questions on the reading comprehension handout.

Discussion: Use discussion questions to encourage students to think about how the issues outlined in the story affect their lives and express and debate different opinions.

Follow-up: Students can write an 500-word editorial on the topic expressing their views and send it to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org] for possible publication.

Evaluation: Students are graded on their answers to reading comprehension questions and/or their editorial.

Story: Children's Health Is Political Battleground , 10/29/07
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/july-dec07/schip_10-29.html

Initiating Questions:

1. What is health insurance?

2. Who pays for health insurance?

3. How much does it cost to go to the doctor? What do you do if you don't have enough money?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. What does SCHIP stand for and why is it in the news right now?

SCHIP is The State Children's Health Insurance Program.

Democrats tried unsuccessfully last week to override the president's veto of a bill expanding the SCHIP legislation.

2. Why was SCHIP first created?

SCHIP was created in 1997 to reduce the number of uninsured children in the United States by providing subsidized insurance to low income families.

When a child is uninsured, they often can't afford to see a doctor. Because they don't have regular check-ups, many uninsured people wind up in a hospital emergency room if they fall ill.

3. Has SCHIP been a success? How do you know? How many American children remain uninsured?

SCHIP has been considered successful -- in 2005, 16 percent of children whose families had income that amounted to less than twice the federal poverty level (around $40,000) were uninsured, compared to 23 percent in 1997.

Still, a high number of American children --approximately 8 million -- remain uninsured and nearly 30 percent of children eligible for the program have yet to enroll.

4. What did Democrats originally want in regards to SCHIP? How did President Bush respond?

In July 2007, Democrats crafted a bill that would expand SCHIP by $35 billion over a five-year period, far beyond the $5 billion President Bush had budgeted for the same timeframe. Raising the tax on cigarettes would fund the expansion.

President Bush vetoed the measure on Oct. 3,2007 believing it would "federalize health care."

5. How do many Republicans feel about the SCHIP issue?

Many Republicans say expanding the program would entice middle-class families to give up their private insurance in favor of a government-sponsored program.

Many Republicans believe health insurance should remain private, meaning that Americans should be covered by the companies they work for.

6. What is in the future for SCHIP?

Amid the face-off, Democrats have called for an extension of the existing SCHIP program through next summer. The next vote on the program would then take place in the fall of 2008, just ahead of the presidential election.

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1. What do you think? Look at the latest proposals for the expansion of the SCHIP program. How would you vote if you were in Congress? Why would you vote this way?

2. Take a look health care in other countries:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/health/uninsured/international.html
What can be done in the United States to improve access to health care.

3. What happens to people in your community if they don't have health insurance? Interview the various stakeholders for this issue including: your parents, public health officials, a doctor, a hospital spokesperson, local politicians, workers at a free health clinic? What have you learned about this issue?

4. For a lesson plan on the uninsured, visit the Online NewsHour's in-depth coverage:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/health/uninsured/index.html

Write a 300-500 word essay on any of these topics providing clear examples. Send your completed editorial to NewsHour Extra (extra@newshour.org). Exceptional essays might be published on our Web site.