Fresno Bee
December 1, 2006

Push begins to insure children
763,000 youngsters go without health coverage in California.

By E.J. Schultz
Bee Capitol Bureau

SACRAMENTO — Staking out an early position in what is sure to be a major budget battle next year, religious organizations and children's advocates Thursday called on Gov. Schwarzenegger and state leaders to spend an estimated $380 million a year to cover the state's 763,000 children without health insurance.

"Children just can't wait any longer, so we are here today to say this is the year to get the job done," said Deena Lahn, policy director of the nonprofit Children's Defense Fund California. The grass-roots coalition, known as Californians for Healthy Kids, includes more than 200 organizations across the state.

The Capitol news conference came about one month before the governor's State of the State speech, in which he is expected to outline his goal of cutting into the ranks of the state's uninsured, estimated at up to 6 million residents.

In the five-county central San Joaquin Valley, about 82,000 children are uninsured, or about 15% of all residents under age 19, according to an estimate by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research based on a survey in 2003.

Universal children's health coverage has been a goal of Schwarzenegger's ever since he took office in 2003. But he has run into resistance from members of his own party.

Republicans this year balked at the governor's modest proposal of spending $23 million on a children's health-care program used by 22 counties, including Fresno and Tulare. Republicans objected because the program is used by undocumented immigrants. There's nothing to indicate they won't take the same stance next year.

"I think we still have the same position," said Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines, R-Clovis. "We don't look at using public funds for undocumented individuals, period."

The governor hasn't changed his mind either.

"He doesn't believe kids should be penalized for the action of their parents," said Kim Belshé, secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency.

She declined to detail plans Schwarzenegger might propose in January or say if he favors a new health insurance program for children.

Funding is the major hurdle.Voters rejected one solution in November when they defeated Proposition 86, which would have raised the tobacco tax to pay for children's health insurance, as well as hospital emergency room services. The governor opposed the plan because it raised taxes.

Next year, any new spending will face stiff resistance from Republicans, who have made reducing the state's $5 billion budget deficit their top priority.

"How you're going to pay for [new health insurance programs] — that to me is a very difficult road," said Villines. Instead of a new program, he favors looking at ways to reduce costs for insurance companies, hospitals and other parts of the health-care chain.

Advocates say the investment in a new program is worth it, even for children who aren't U.S. citizens.

"It really doesn't matter, a kid is a kid is a kid, and the health of them affects all of us over the long run," said Brooke Frost, manager of the Children's Health Initiative of Tulare County, in a telephone interview. "When you're in a school classroom, a bacteria or a virus doesn't ask each child 'are you documented or not?' — it just hits the whole classroom."

Tulare and Fresno counties and 20 other counties in the state have Healthy Kids programs, which extend children's health insurance to families who earn too much to qualify for Medi-Cal and other programs but cannot afford private insurance. Benefits are also available to undocumented immigrants.

But the programs, funded almost solely with donations, don't have the resources to keep up with the need, administrators say. Tulare County has 1,500 children ages 6-18 on its waiting list, and Fresno County has more than 300 children in line.

A statewide program is needed, especially for rural counties that struggle to draw large corporate donations, Frost said. "For counties in the Central Valley, we don't have those opportunities [and] that has really impacted our ability to enroll kids."