4/29/2008
CDF-RGV welcomes new campaign to insure every Texas child
PHARR, April 30 - A leading advocate for children’s health care in the Rio Grande Valley has welcomed an initiative to provide health insurance to all Texas children.
Luisa Saenz, director of the Children’s Defense Fund-Rio Grande Valley,
said the Texas Finish Line Campaign sought to influence state lawmakers in the
run-up to the 2009 legislative session.
“We are looking for more positive changes from the legislature, as we
got in 2007. That helped increase the number of enrolled children by 109,000.
With more positive action we can get even more children insured. We want every
child in Texas insured,” Saenz told the Guardian.
Saenz said the CDF-RGV and the Children's Health Coalition would have a crucial
role to play in the new campaign.
The campaign has been launched by the Children’s Defense Fund of Texas,
the Center for Public Policy Priorities, Texans Care for Children, and a collaboration
of policy makers, advocates, and business leaders.
Saenz said the campaign will build on the successes of the 2007 legislative
session so that affordable, comprehensive health insurance for every Texas child
is achieved.
Saenz said this could be achieved by enrolling all eligible uninsured kids by
eliminating bureaucratic roadblocks, and reaching more uninsured kids by letting
families "buy into" the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
by paying a health care premium for CHIP that increases as their income increases.
Saenz had hoped to be in Austin for the launch of the new campaign but could
not make it.
“In Texas, 1.5 million children are uninsured, the highest rate in the
nation,” Saenz said. “And, the Rio Grande Valley has the highest
rate of uninsured kids in the state, based on U.S. Census estimates, because
we are 98 percent Hispanic. We have 131,624 uninsured, based on the 2006 population.”
According to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, there are about
406,000 children under 18 in the four-county Valley region. HHSC says about
68,000 of these children are eligible for CHIP or Children’s Medicaid.
Saenz said of these, just under 23,000, or 32.4 percent, are uninsured.
Last August, at the start of the school year, the Children’s Health Coalition
in the Valley launched a campaign to get coverage up to the peak figures reached
in 2003, before the legislature made drastic cuts in the CHIP program. At its
peak in the Valley, CHIP covered 46,200 children, Saenz said.
By April 1, the CHC campaign had signed up 33,386 children for CHIP, which leaves
just under 13,000 to go to reach the target figure.
The big problem, Saenz said, has been the “bureaucratic red tape”
in Austin. As fast as children were being signed up, Health and Human Services
was un-enrolling children, she said. “At the same time we were adding
25,000 children to the CHIP rolls, the state was disenrolling 17,000 children,”
Saenz said. “We only gained 8,000.”
Things have improved over the past couple of months though, because HHSC decided
to go back to 12 month eligibility, rather than six, Saenz said.
“The highest new enrollment across the state has been in Harris County
and the Rio Grande Valley. Here there has been a 25 percent increase. That’s
because the Children’s Defense Fund is leading the way,” Saenz said.
“We also attribute the success to the fantastic collaboration among the
agencies and the community non-profit groups that have the well-being of the
children as their top priority.”
Saenz also paid tribute to the business, faith-based, and civic groups that
have helped, citing the work of CHC, CDF-RGV, and community based organizations
designated to do outreach, such as Nuestra Clinica del Valle, Su Clinica Familia,
and Brownsville Community Center.
“We have taken the lead in reaching out to the families of every eligible
child to use the benefits for preventative care and to ensure that every child
has a medical home,” Saenz said.
“We are excited at the momentum for new enrollments of Texas children
and Rio Grande Valley children and we will continue to work diligently until
every Texas child is insured.”
Saenz said the 2003 CHIP cuts, pushed through by the Republican-controlled legislature
and supported by some Democrats, was devastating for the Valley. “They
cut funding, made it harder to enroll, insisted on a six-month renewal process,
created a ton of paperwork, imposed an assets test, and took away adult care,”
she said.
In 2007, the legislature passed HB 109, which reinstated the 12-month enrollment
process, eliminated the 90-day waiting period for new applicants, and eased
income limits, such as requiring families to include their cars when totaling
their assets.
Thanks largely to the 2007 legislation, CHIP enrollment has increased by 109,000
in just eight months.
“Every Texan wins when our state's children can get the care they need,
when they need it,” said Barbara Best, executive director of the Children’s
Defense Fund of Texas.
“Texas kids win when they are healthy and in school. Parents win because
they miss fewer days of work caring for sick children, and taxpayers and businesses
win when Texas' health care system provides cost-effective preventive care instead
of costly emergency room care after untreated conditions become severe.”
Lan Bentsen, co-founder of a Texas-based international oil and gas company and
the co-chair of the Children’s Defense Fund Advisory Board, said he welcomed
the new statewide campaign to get every child insured.
“Providing cost effective health coverage for children is the basis of
a good business plan,” Bentsen said. “It does not make fiscal sense
to leave one out of every five children uninsured when, instead of getting preventive
care, these kids turn to emergency rooms for treatment. Costly uncompensated
health care costs are then absorbed by local tax payers and individuals though
increased premiums.”