Texas, Florida lead nation in uninsured children
Families USA has released a new report highlighting a disturbing aspect of our nation's health care crisis: the fact that 9 million children have no health insurance.Even more disturbing is the fact that most of these children have parents that work. As the AP reports:
Most of the 9 million uninsured children in the U.S. live in homes where at least one parent works full time. In more than one-quarter of the cases, there are two working parents. [...]States in the South and West lead the list for most uninsured children:
"I think they believe these are low-income people who don't work, who are very different from themselves," said the group's executive director, Ron Pollack. "These are people who work, who are doing the right thing." [...]
Overall, 88.3 percent of uninsured children age 18 and under live in households with a working parent. About 70 percent live in households were a parent works full time, year-round, according to the report.
The five states with the highest rates of uninsured children are Texas, 20.4 percent; Florida, 17 percent; New Mexico, 16.7 percent; Nevada, 16.4 percent; and Montana, 16.2 percent.Many assume that children still find coverage through Medicaid and state-based Children's Health Insurance Programs. Yet the report notes that because the parents work, many children aren't eligible because the programs are aimed at families below the poverty line (Medicaid) or just above it (CHIP). On top of that,
Vermont had the lowest rate of uninsured children -- 5.6 percent. Michigan, Hawaii and New Hampshire were next at 6.4 percent. The national rate is 11.6 percent.
"The reason these children are not participating is that, No. 1, many don't know about it, and No. 2, the enrollment process is cumbersome," [Families USA's Ron] Pollack said.There's also a racial bias in which children fall through the cracks:
Families USA said that about 3.4 million of the uninsured children in the U.S. are white, about 1.5 million are black, and about 3.5 million are Hispanic.
3 Comments:
I had "Florida KidCare" coverage till Jeb decided it cost too much and puged about half the children from the program through bureaucratic red tape and stringent renewal requirements. Then they discovered that they were going to lose millions in federal funds and reversed course.
I lost my kids' coverage when I received a renewal form a week after in was dated and only given three weeks to assemble a months worth of paystubs and my tax return, etc. They said I could reapply after a year. (not true, I later found out!)
They threw hurdle after hurdle at me and display Bushian incompetance. I applied online and two weeks later received a spanish language application form in the mail! I am still trying though.
Gee, the state that is currently governed by a Bush and the state formerly governed by a Bush are the worst at providing healthcare for children. Is anyone surprised?
I teach in a Title One school and see sick children coming to school day after day, infecting other students and too sick and/or with too many days out to keep up in class. Last year I had a little girl who came to class for 2 weeks with a severe toothache. We finally got her some dental care. This is an area where there is very little support for poor kids and many poor kids and their families have no access to dental care.
Note also one of the bugdet cuts last Spring, coupled with the tax cuts to the rich, cut medicaid for children from working families. More compassionate conservatism I guess.
But when you combine this assault on living standards with "higher standards" and "high stakes testing" and then blame the public schools when poor kids fail you can see who is really failing. Its the politicians failing to meet their obligations on NCLB by supporting the working poor and most vulnerable kids in society.
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