Kids' health funding at risk
Aurelio Rojas
Sacramento Bee
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared 2007 the "year of health care reform" in California, but thousands of children could actually lose insurance coverage in the coming months.
Locally financed children's programs are running out of money, a hoped-for increase in federal funding has not materialized, and the state is facing a $10 billion budget deficit.
Moreover, both the Republican governor's and the Democrats' universal health care proposals would not provide coverage until 2010.But children's advocates say that without interim funding for children's coverage, at least 55,000 children now covered by Children's Health Initiatives in 25 counties will lose their coverage over the next two years because the programs are running out of money.
And an impasse between Congress and the Bush administration in reauthorizing the State Children's Health Insurance Program is imperiling funding for California's Healthy Families program for poor children.
The panel that manages the Healthy Families program has adopted rules to allow the state to create a waiting list and to remove some of the 1.1 million kids on the rolls – possibly 60,000 each month – if the logjam is not broken.
Children's Health Initiatives such as the program in Solano County have already stopped enrolling children because their money is running out.
"We're actually taking a step backward," said Jacque McLaughlin, director of the Solano Coalition for Children's Health and co-chair of the state's Children's Health Initiatives.
"Hopefully, we'll get some (new) funding, but if we have to wait until 2010, we won't be able to sustain these programs."
November 18, 2007 at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Blog Reactions
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