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"I was always for small government... but then I got injured and now... I feel okay that my kid's gonna be all right. We need this."

"Who's gonna wanna argue against this?! I can get maybe not going far enough since dental would be nice, but man, who's gonna try and fight this?"

"I don't think many people who wouldn't be in this heard of Facebook and Myspace until now. But seeing all those stories of people and what they went through... there's now a place where people can make their voices be heard."

Medicare for Kids

Medicare, while primarily for seniors, was not wholly exclusive to them. For instance, children can receive Medicare and other government-related healthcare if they meet certain conditions. Children are defined by Medicare as anyone under the age of 22 who is unmarried. However, for the children to qualify, it is when they are disabled or have a type of disease like ESRD. Medicare only gives treatment to legally adopted or birth-related children. Stepchildren can only receive Medicare if you have been a parent for at least one year. As such, the Medicare for Children Act was done to expand on the work of this program and CHIP. The idea was to expand Medicare to include children. After all, Gore said that all children should be insured by 2004 and he wishes to follow through. Al Gore went all out in getting support. He noted how many people lost their working parents from 9/11, fighting abroad or other disasters. How hard it was for parents to shop for insurance to help for their children's future.

No one was gonna wanna argue against it. They'd be arguing against insuring children. Granted, that did not stop some who tried arguing against it for economic reasons, but that did not stop Gore. Stoic steady Gore. He answered questions as they came. The money would come from increasing taxes on large corporations and on the obstensiably wealthy, such as the estate tax. Additionally, it would provide some relief over on the states in regards to CHIP. Additionally, Gore noted the Administration would work with hospitals and other providers. After all, why was medical care so expensive? There were several reasons although thr costs of administration (in part due to insurance providers), drug costs (which Gore also tackled by also proposing Medicare to have the right to negotiate drug prices.) Pundits had a field day, with some ballsy ones claiming that health insurance companies worked with hospital heads to pretty much scam people out of money by driving up costs.

While the concerns of big government remained, the attention of big corporations was a larger one. There was a growing pop culture bubble in lashing out against big corporations and the angles it had could be approached by different ways. Some opted to shop locally for example and it seemed to begin go beyond poltical borders. Nonetheless, Medicare for Kids was a long time in the making. Some began even swinging the word "socialism" around. Al Gore responded by inviting health professionals from around Canada and Europe to respond and then, in a mvoe suggested by his "Digital Cabinet", had people share their stories on medical prices from Facebook and Myspace. The double mix of professionalism and anecdoctal evidence as people came in to give stories and testimonies dominated the media and many began noticing the power these new "social media" sites had. In the end, Gore succeeded. It cost a fair bit of political clout, but he won. There was still various problems he had, from both sides. Bernie Sanders argued to expand it even more to include eye-care and dentalcare while those on the right threw a stink over the cover of abortions and others. However, Gore spelled his thoughts on abortion and as he put it, it would be better to teach kids to have safe sex and make it easy to have ways to reduce the changes. And once more, the summoning of professionals and the use of social media to gather widespread testimonies worked to his advantage. Then the stats were brought up and the comparisons between how abstinence-only programs worked against others.

Pundits, even those on Fox News, could not help but get plenty of humor on how one-sided the argument was.

Al Gore's social conservatism helped here. His stance and reputation was enough to help get some of the mdoerates to accept it.

Medicare for Kids passed. The crux was the government, through taxation and price negotiation would fund medical care to all children up until the age of 22 (the initial idea was 18, but was kept at 22 because of prior policy as well as arguments regarding college, runaway youths and so on.) The funding came from increased taxes on corporations and on the 1% (such as an increase in the estate tax) while also using price negotiation to lower the prices to begin with. Parents would take their children to doctors, flash their cards and get medical attention. Generic pharamceutial drugs would be also within the range of assistance.

Not everyone was happy. Some conservatives remained ideologically against it and attempts instead went to try and plan to "starve the beast". Others were overall okay with it, but had issues such as regarding sex care and abortions, though questions in regards to minors having children led to criticism. Other critics went to states' rights, but beyond the comparisons to segregation decades prior of having the similar defense, other questions were tackled and Gore noted that people would remember the politicians who try and sabotage healthcare for their kids. This line would become more prominent as other legislature came. Others noted the potential loss of jobs or business this would lead, but aside from the growing distrust toward corruptuons, many administration jobs ended up switching over to working for the state, while some insurances diversified to dental and eyecare, which weren't included. More than a few unions had mixed feelings though the effort was put in for them to try and push for dental and eyecare.

While not perfect and costing plenty of effort and political influence, Medicare For Kids was passed.It was a Christmas miracle for many, many people.