Leading pediatricians last week issued a joint statement criticizing what they said was President Bush’s neglect of children’s health issues.
Signed by 36 pediatricians, including Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, the statement faults the president for the 8 million children without health insurance, and tax and budget policies that the doctors contend “will erode decades of hard-won health gains for children.”
The Washington-based organization Vote Kids, a child-advocacy group, worked with the doctors to release the statement on Sept. 29. Michael R. Petit, the founder and president of the group, said the statement was intended to put children’s health issues on the “front burner” and was not coordinated with any political candidate or party.
But the statement endorses a proposal by Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, President Bush’s Democratic opponent in next month’s election, to bring uninsured children into the Medicaid health-care system.
The Bush-Cheney campaign did not return calls for comment. The pediatricians’ letter and additional information are available at www.votekids.org.
