Policy Pick: Health Care Reform and KidsNovember 23, 2009 |
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 Earlier this month, the U.S. House of Representatives made history by passing H.R. 3962, The Affordable Health Care for America Act, by a narrow vote of 220 to 215. With an estimated price tag of more than $1.1 trillion over the next 10 years, H.R. 3962 would expand health care to cover more than 35 million uninsured Americans including more than 300,000 children in California. The plan would expand Medicaid and create an exchange so the uninsured can receive federal subsidies to buy coverage from a private health insurance company or a government-run option. Children would benefit from the House proposal in a number of ways. The bill will expand Medicaid to include children under 150 percent of the Federal Poverty Level. The House bill would also expand children's coverage to include dental, vision, and hearing needs; provide funding for home visitation programs and tobacco cessation programs; require all plans to offer basic maternity coverage; and increase support for immunization, school-based clinics, and community health centers. Some children's advocates have noted that the House bill could put some children at risk by sunsetting the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) by 2014. Known as Healthy Families in California, CHIP provides coverage for children whose families don't qualify for Medicaid but can't afford private insurance. Ending the program could cause some children to lose coverage as they jump from a highly subsidized CHIP plan into private coverage that could be more expensive. Critics also worry that the private plans won't offer the same extensive benefits that CHIP does. CHIP's fate has not been sealed however. Last month members of the Senate Finance Committee passed an amendment sponsored by Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-West Virginia) to reauthorize CHIP through 2019. According to an article in the Washington Independent, supporters of the House bill say that shifting children into the exchange will actually increase enrollment because entire families will gain coverage under the same plan. A Kaiser Family Foundation report also points out that under the bill, the Secretary of Health and Human Services will make recommendations on how to ensure that coverage in the Health Insurance Exchange is comparable to coverage under an average CHIP plan and that transfer into the exchange will not interrupt coverage. The Senate is currently working on its own health care reform bill. If one passes, a congressional conference committee will work to reconcile the different parts of the two proposals and produce a consensus version. First 5 LA urges federal lawmakers to work together to ensure that our children get the health care coverage that they need and deserve. To read First 5 LA's Statement of Health Care Reform Principles, click here. |
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