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San Jose Mercury News
May 2, 2005
By Michael-Ray Mathews and Debbie Weatherspoon
California is trying to launch a historic new campaign to
provide health insurance for all low-income children in the
state. Sound familiar? It should. This bold idea started right
here in Santa Clara County, initiated by People Acting in
Community Together (PACT) and Working Partnerships USA.
Five years ago this June, more than 500 people from religious
congregations around Santa Clara County gathered at the
Mexican Heritage Plaza for an event organized by PACT to
encourage local elected officials to create the Children's
Health Initiative. That lovely June morning, county supervisors
committed themselves, and just seven months later, in early
2001, the dream became real: Through a program called Healthy
Kids, all low-income children in the county became eligible
for high-quality, low-cost health insurance.
This was the first program of its kind in
the country, and more than 70,000 children have enrolled since
then. Children are healthier now in this county than they
have ever been. Using our local program as a model, counties
around the state have created their own similar programs.
But growth in funding for the county program
has not kept pace with demand, so there is now a waiting list
of eight months for children ages 6-18 to enroll in Healthy
Kids (all eligible children up to 5 years old are covered
by First 5 Santa Clara County). In other words, we no longer
offer universal coverage for children. Ailing kids in the
county are again being told that they must wait. Likewise,
other counties that have started similar programs are capping
enrollment.
But help is on the way. More than 4,200 people
recently traveled to Sacramento from cities and towns across
the state to give a clear message to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
and state legislators: Make children's health a priority.
These were not professional lobbyists. They
were ordinary people, all volunteers, from PACT's 20 sister
organizations around the state, representing the basic needs
of hundreds of thousands of families through our statewide
interfaith network called PICO California. Three hundred
people in our county traveled by bus to join the event, led
by a bright-yellow Hummer sporting a banner reading "Californians
for Healthy Kids.''
What distinguished the rally was not just its size, but also
that it, like the campaign as a whole, was non-partisan and
led by "everyday'' people from diverse communities--new
immigrants, longtime Californians, veterans, college students.
Twenty legislators attended, too, Democrats and Republicans,
including Senate leader Don Perata, D-Oakland, and Assembly
Speaker Fabian Nuñéz, D-Los Angeles.
In a show of bipartisan cooperation, Schwarzenegger's
top health official, Secretary of Health and Human Services
Kim Belshe, attended. She and the legislators were greeted
with thunderous applause when they committed to making 100
percent coverage for children a top priority.
The good news is that this audacious goal--particularly
so in this tough budget environment--is not that expensive.
With cost savings from federal matching funds and state programs
that would become unnecessary if all children had insurance,
the estimate is $120 million to $300 million. This is not
even one-half of 1 percent of the state budget.
Five years ago in Santa Clara County, we
showed the truth of the statement, "When the people
lead, the leaders will follow.'' This can happen at the state
level, too, if enough of us make our voices heard.
The Rev. Michael-Ray Mathews and
the Rev. Debbie Witherspoon are co-chairs of the People Acting
in Community Together (PACT) board of directors.
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