Ace Stryker - Daily Herald | Posted: Friday, November 21, 2008 11:00 pm
The number of uninsured children in Utah is on the rise, and Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson says state and federal lawmakers must act to preserve a program designed to help them.
There were an average of 107,000 children -- about one in eight -- without health insurance in the state between 2005 and 2007, according to a new report from Families USA, a Washington-based nonpartisan advocacy group. That makes Utah No. 10 on the list of states with uninsured children. It's also an increase of 18,500 over the period two years prior, Executive Director Ron Pollack said.
"What's really noteworthy is that the overwhelming majority of these children are in working families," said Pollack, adding Census numbers indicate 90.9 percent of uninsured kids have at least one parent working full-time. "Parents are probably working in a small business that can't afford to provide health care coverage."
Pollack said the average Utah family pays between $12,000 and $13,000 a year in health insurance premiums, often pricing them out of coverage through their work. Often, those same families don't qualify for Medicaid. That's where the Children's Health Insurance Program was designed to come in.
The program, colloquially known as CHIP, was conceived in 1997 as a way to cover kids whose families don't qualify for Medicaid but can't afford private insurance. In Utah, it will pay for common medical expenses for children in families making less than 200 percent of the poverty level -- $42,400 for a family of four. About 36,000 are enrolled across the state, including about 7,000 in Utah County.
The problem is the program is due to expire in March 2009 unless the federal government reauthorizes it. Last October, President George Bush vetoed a $35 billion measure to expand the program, his advisors arguing they could negotiate a lower price. The decision left the future of CHIP cloudy -- but its prospects appear hopeful given the incoming president, Matheson said.
"I am very confident that when the new Congress takes office in January, that in very short order that legislation will move through Congress again in a bipartisan way and that President Obama will sign that into law," he said.
Indeed, Obama made health care reform a central issue during his campaign and spent $125 million on ads to that effect. But Matheson said the solution can't be isolated to Capitol Hill. The state actually administers the program, and although the federal government contributes $3.88 for every $1 Utah spends, state funding is critical to CHIP's success, he said.
"There is work to be done in Washington," he said. "I am confident that you will see it act relatively quickly in 2009. And on a state-specific basis, there is work to be done in Utah."
Currently, state funding for CHIP comes from the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, a $206 billion settlement reached between states and major tobacco companies in 1998. Lincoln Nehring, Medicaid policy director for the Utah Health Policy Project, says some lawmakers are discussing a change to the way tobacco tax revenue is used to expand the program. He said Utah should follow other states' leads in raising the income threshold to 250 percent of poverty.
"There's a lot of work that needs to be done," Nehring said. "It hasn't been expanded to the point that it meets Utah's needs."
Matheson said improving health care for kids will be impossible without decisive action and bipartisan support.
"The fact that Utah is the 10th worst in the country in terms of having uninsured kids is something that should concern us all," he said. "Utahns pride themselves on being a family-friendly state. Now is the time to go beyond walking the walk and talk the talk."
• Ace Stryker can be reached at 344-2556 or astryker@heraldextra.com.