Now this is really news! Some Republicans may have a heart after all. Bubba's budget gets revised by Republicans! - And speaking of values . . .

Saturday's ajc has the following two items concerning PeachCare:

• A key House panel approved a budget plan Friday that would end the controversial three-month lockout period for children whose parents send late payments to PeachCare, the state's program for uninsured kids.

Tougher rules on payments and higher premiums, adopted last year, caused 45,000 children to lose PeachCare insurance in the first four months. The state says about two-thirds of those children have been reinstated, but many went without coverage for three months because of the lockout rule.

The House Appropriations subcommittee on health spared state health programs from several painful cuts by approving a gentler budget than was first proposed by Gov. Sonny Perdue.

The change "will get the state back on the right track," said Linda Lowe, a consumer health advocate. "The department never should have adopted that lockout policy. It harmed a lot of children."

• Separately, the Senate passed a PeachCare bill Friday allowing 200,000 PeachCare kids to be shifted into health maintenance organizations, or HMOs, along with 800,000 people on Medicaid. But the chamber removed language that would have given the board of the state Community Health Department the power to shrink PeachCare enrollment by changing eligibility requirements.

Sen. Regina Thomas (D-Savannah) gave a fiery speech about the importance of programs like PeachCare.

She criticized the GOP-controlled General Assembly for touting family and moral values but failing to protect children and poor people. "If you're a Christian, you care about all people," Thomas said. "The right thing for the people in this state is to allow our babies to have access to health care."
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And talking about PeachCare, in a 10-4-04 post partly entitled "It looks like the Governor needs to get his Easy Rider helmet on for some rough riding ahead," I wrote:

Baxter & Galloway observe:

Former Gov. Roy Barnes — not that he would ever criticize a fellow governor — has been testing this line in front of several audiences: "I would have scraped the gold off the Capitol before I cut funding in education."

Jim Galloway stood in for the Dean this week on The Georgia Gang, and during the show had the occasion to note that Gov. Barnes had made the above statement about scraping gold off the Capitol.

I thought to myself; I have heard Roy say that before. He used the line when addressing the huge, huge crowed of well-wishers at a campaign rally for Charles Walker in Augusta the day after the fed's made public the 142 count indictment. The topic: how Gov. Perdue has more than doubled the premiums for PeachCare (the program providing comprehensive health care to children who do not qualify for Medicaid), a program dear to Roy Barnes' heart.
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And by the way, when and if you next see Sen. Regina Thomas, tell her to keep up the good work. As we all well know, she has -- as have so many other good Democrats this legislative session -- had to work extra hard this session on behalf of the good people of Georgia.

Here's to hoping such hard work will be rewarded in November '06.