|
Sacramento Bee
Op-Ed
October 31, 2007
This year Sacramento has been abuzz with multiple health care reform plans, negotiations and press conferences. Yet, while policymakers wrangle over reform details behind closed doors, thousands of children throughout the state are losing their health coverage. Health care costs have continued to skyrocket, and employer-based insurance has declined, resulting in working families struggling more than ever to find health coverage for their kids.
Despite unprecedented public and policymaker support for children's health care, the state has been sliding backward instead of making real progress. This has put pressure and stress on local communities to intervene.
In 2001, for example, Santa Clara was the first county in California to offer health coverage to all children through a locally financed program. Twenty-five counties throughout the state, including Sacramento, have followed suit, providing tens of thousands of children with health coverage by combining First 5 funds, foundation dollars and dollars from local fundraising.
But these innovative efforts were designed to be temporary solutions, and they are now running out of resources. As a result, many local initiatives have been forced to cap enrollment and turn away uninsured children.
One glaring example is in Los Angeles, where nearly 8,000 fewer children were insured through their local program this year compared with the same time in 2005. Without immediate action from the governor and Legislature, 30,000 more children in Los Angeles could lose coverage as soon as February. The effects will ripple across the state. Sacramento's program for children ages 6 to 18 would likely suffer a fate similar to that of Los Angeles and would be forced to reduce coverage.
The problem was further exacerbated when, in August, $67 million was cut from children's health programs – a casualty of the summer's delayed and contentious state budget process. This funding would have helped insure more than 100,000 children through outreach efforts and by a simplified enrollment process for families with uninsured children.
So far, even with all the talk about health care reform, there are still no positive results for kids.
During the special legislative session now under way in Sacramento, much of the work will center on creating a future ballot measure on health care coverage for all Californians. Unfortunately, many more children will lose their coverage before any such measure comes to a vote. In a best-case scenario, this measure would be put before voters on the November 2008 ballot, and some parts would not take effect until 2010. By that time, at least 55,000 more children are expected to lose health coverage in California.
That number will swell if the reauthorization of the federal State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) isn't approved in Washington by mid-November, with adequate funding and strong policy.
In the "Year of Health Care Reform," children's health care has lost ground. But the year isn't over yet. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata – along with many others – have all talked publicly about their commitment to insure all children. Children need to see results now, this year.
For success, two things need to happen: (1) legislation that establishes policy and long-term funding for children's health coverage must be enacted, and (2) interim funding must be provided starting next year, so that no child loses coverage while a broader health care reform is put in place.
Children's advocates continue to support our leaders in their effort to enact a broader, long-term health care reform. But these same leaders cannot let comprehensive efforts push aside the children who are losing coverage today, and every day, nor those who remain uninsured. Our elected leaders must not allow the "Year of Health Care Reform" to end without delivering health coverage to all children in California.
********************
Wendy Lazarus is president and co-founder of The Children's Partnership, a California-based policy and strategy center that works to improve the lives of children.
The Rev. Charles Warner is board president of the Sacramento Area Congregations Together.
|
