Congress and California stepped up to the plate in a big way last year for children with pre-existing health conditions.
Parents who don't qualify for Healthy Families or Medi-Cal must now do their part. They have until March 1 to sign up their children for health insurance programs before the open enrollment period closes. It would be a travesty for parents to ignore this golden opportunity so many fought so hard to achieve.
Failure to sign up means parents can't take advantage of any insurance price break until their child's next birthday.
The federal government last year initiated reforms forbidding health insurers to deny coverage to children with chronic conditions, such as asthma or diabetes. California's Legislature took that one step further by forcing insurers to offer premiums that are no more than double the rate of covering healthy children.
If health insurers had any doubt about California's commitment to insuring children, Los Angeles Assemblyman Mike Feuer's AB 2244 made the state's position perfectly clear. The legislation, signed last fall by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, bans health insurers from selling policies to anyone for five years if they refuse to sell policies for children.
An estimated 500,000 California children have pre-existing conditions, although many have some form of coverage through their parents' insurance policies. It's unclear how many of the remaining uninsured children in California
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have yet to take advantage of this option. Advocates in Silicon Valley fear the number may be high, and even one is too many.
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have yet to take advantage of this option. Advocates in Silicon Valley fear the number may be high, and even one is too many.
Children who have health insurance see doctors far more often than those who are uninsured. It's an established fact that children who do not have coverage are:
# 3 times more likely to have gone without needed medications.
# 5 times more likely to use an emergency room in place of a regular place of care.
# 10 times more likely to not have a pediatrician who serves as their regular family physician.
Children who don't get help for routine problems often wind up at places like Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, where the cost of care -- too often paid by taxpayers -- is thousands of dollars higher than a routine doctor visit.
The California Center for Public Health Advocacy reports that one out of every three school children in the state is overweight. Three out of every four overweight children become overweight adults, and the cost of treating the obese in California in 2010 is already estimated at $28 billion. The expense will only grow as the state's overweight children grow into adulthood.
The other worrisome and costly health concern for children is asthma. California kids missed nearly 2 million days of school last year because of asthma-related issues.
Parents who care about their children's education also must do everything they can to provide regular health care.
The two are related: Healthy children are more alert and comfortable in school and nearly always will outperform kids who come to school sick or in pain.
Besides, doesn't every child deserve basic health care? This is the time for parents to step up and get them registered -- and for community health advocates to keep up the good work of spreading the word.
