Monday, January 11, 2010
The health of an entire generation of children is prone to risk in California.
The advocacy group Children Now reported that California ranks an appalling 36th in the nation in the percentage of children with health insurance. More than 1 million of the state's 9 million children are uninsured. And Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's finance director has already said to "expect the worst" in the upcoming budget year regarding the prospects for the state's Healthy Families program, which funds health care for poor kids.
"The worst" would mean devastating cuts to the program in the 2010-11 budget proposals. In 2009, that calamity was avoided at the last minute only because the federal government and the state's First 5 program came to the rescue with an additional $196 million in funding. The state shouldn't expect that temporary fix to be available in 2010.
The Children Now report shows cutting children's health care is a poor fiscal move, too. The average cost of treating a child for a preventable hospitalization is $7,000. In California, the cost of providing health coverage for a child is roughly $1,200. It doesn't take a math wizard to figure out that this investment in children's health is in the best interests of all Californians.
California falls further behind in the competition to have the healthiest, best educated work force in the nation, whenever it decides to underfund (or not fund at all) programs to bring the state closer to universal coverage for children
Unlike other programs,California's Healthy Families program provides an easy target for the Legislature. It is because its funding is not secured by the state constitution. Finding a steady, feasible funding stream for children's health care should be one of the top priorities for the governor,the Legislature and Californians in 2010.
The advocacy group Children Now reported that California ranks an appalling 36th in the nation in the percentage of children with health insurance. More than 1 million of the state's 9 million children are uninsured. And Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's finance director has already said to "expect the worst" in the upcoming budget year regarding the prospects for the state's Healthy Families program, which funds health care for poor kids.
"The worst" would mean devastating cuts to the program in the 2010-11 budget proposals. In 2009, that calamity was avoided at the last minute only because the federal government and the state's First 5 program came to the rescue with an additional $196 million in funding. The state shouldn't expect that temporary fix to be available in 2010.
The Children Now report shows cutting children's health care is a poor fiscal move, too. The average cost of treating a child for a preventable hospitalization is $7,000. In California, the cost of providing health coverage for a child is roughly $1,200. It doesn't take a math wizard to figure out that this investment in children's health is in the best interests of all Californians.
California falls further behind in the competition to have the healthiest, best educated work force in the nation, whenever it decides to underfund (or not fund at all) programs to bring the state closer to universal coverage for children
Unlike other programs,California's Healthy Families program provides an easy target for the Legislature. It is because its funding is not secured by the state constitution. Finding a steady, feasible funding stream for children's health care should be one of the top priorities for the governor,the Legislature and Californians in 2010.
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