Opinion

Give all children coverage

May 1 marked the beginning of national Cover the Uninsured Week, intended to draw national attention to the need to provide health coverage for all Americans. In California, the week marked a tremendous opportunity for our state leaders to address the very real need — and very achievable goal — of providing health coverage for the more than 800,000 uninsured children in our state.

Few people would disagree that covering kids is good for our children and their health. Countless studies and plain common sense tell us that children who have health insurance are healthier than those without. They are more likely to get the care they need to ensure healthy development, including preventive care, immunizations and basic checkups, and they are less likely to get sick and miss school.

But not as many people realize that covering all kids makes good economic sense as well. For every dollar we spend as a state, California becomes eligible for as much as $2 in federal matching funds. More important, health insurance allows children to receive preventive care and medical and dental attention before a problem gets serious — and more costly for state and local governments. Every dollar spent on childhood immunizations, for example, saves $13 down the road. Healthier kids will also help lower parents' absenteeism from work and loss of productivity that results from sick children.

That's why so many of California's business leaders are strongly behind efforts to encourage lawmakers to establish a framework and statewide plan to cover all kids.

Fortunately, the goal is within reach. More than 90 percent of California's 10 million children are insured. Part of this is the result of local Children's Health Initiatives. CHIs are locally initiated collaborations between businesses, healthcare providers, counties, children's advocates and philanthropic organizations — all of which have stepped up at the local level to help address the critical problem of uninsured children in counties across California. Together, California's 31 CHIs have successfully provided direct coverage to more than 83,000 children and have helped enroll an estimated 80,000 children in Medi-Cal and Healthy Families programs.

In Ventura County, there are 32,000 children without healthcare coverage, 27,000 of whom would be eligible for existing programs. Covering the 5,000 children who currently are not eligible is doable, as the county of Ventura's Health Care Agency is creating a good foundation to achieve this. Still, a statewide solution is needed. For starters, without some consistent state funding, the long-term solvency of many CHIs is threatened.

Equally important, CHIs do not have reach into every community. While successful at the local level, CHIs are not designed to meet the needs of a state as large as California. Some counties may never have a local CHI program, due to lack of resources or lack of political will, leaving children uninsured and with little or no affordable health care.

In the short term, part of the solution to cover all kids is to provide state funding that will keep CHIs viable to ensure the children who currently rely on them can continue to do so. But in the long term, we must build upon the success of the CHIs to create a seamless statewide network with the capability and reach to enroll and provide insurance for all children in this state.

United Way's Covering California's Kids supports a budget and legislative solution this year that will make good progress toward our goal of covering all children. The governor's budget is a good start, but we request that the legislators in Sacramento increase his proposed amount to approximately $100 million, creating the California Healthy Kids Insurance Program to streamline the existing system and help local children's health initiatives in 18 counties sustain their good work until a statewide solution is firmly in place.

In addition, there is the Tobacco Tax Initiative of 2006 that will be on the November ballot. It would provide stable funding for the $330 million needed annually to cover all children. While this is obviously not a long-term solution, this money would buy at least 10 years to continue working on a permanent solution.

A growing statewide coalition of business and civic leaders, educators, healthcare providers, faith leaders, labor representatives and children's advocates are engaged in efforts to develop a realistic, long-term solution to cover all kids.

As Cover the Uninsured Week concludes, we hope our state leaders will join with us to move forward in this important priority for our children and our state.

Nancy Mayerson, of Westlake Village, serves on the United Way of Ventura County board of directors.