Published by: Bruce Lesley on 3/23/2011 2:59:36 PM
This post is the fourth in our series of guest entries marking the one-year anniversary of the passage of the health reform law.
Health reform will not only reduce the budget deficit in the next ten years by more than $100 billion, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, but more importantly, it also will ensure that an estimated 32 million Americans who are uninsured or underinsured can get high quality, affordable health coverage they can rely on.
For our nation’s children, especially low-income children and those children with special health care needs, it is indisputable they are better off today because of the health reform legislation signed into law a year ago today. Because of the “Affordable Care Act,” insurance companies can no longer deny coverage to kids with pre-existing conditions or place annual or lifetime caps on coverage. These provisions have already gone into effect and so the child in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) or the 8 year-old with leukemia being treated in any of our nation’s public hospitals will no longer be denied coverage due to reaching some sort of lifetime or annual cap.
Furthermore, the “Affordable Care Act” allows parents to keep their children on their insurance plan until they are 26 years of age and gives both generations piece of mind that an accident or health problem with not put their adult child, who are the demographic with the highest uninsured rate in the country, in both a health and financial crisis.
We all know that investing in our children's health is investing in America's future. When we help children grow and succeed, we are paving the way for our country's next generation of workers and leaders to fulfill the American Dream.
Unfortunately, there are efforts to repeal health reform, which would be devastating for the millions children and families who already are or soon will benefit from this historic legislation. Why? Here are 10 key reasons:
1. If health reform were repealed, insurers would go back to denying coverage for children with pre-existing conditions. Parents of children with cancer, children born with a birth defect, children with asthma, special-needs kids, among others, would once again be unable to get coverage for their kids without the Affordable Care Act.
2. Insurers would return to the practice of placing lifetime limits on coverage so that if a child is fortunate enough to beat leukemia when they are 8 they would be uninsurable if they face another serious illness later in life.
3. Dependent children through age 26 would not be guaranteed access to coverage on their parents' policy, leaving scores of young adults, including recent high school and college grads, back among the ranks of the uninsured.
4. Insurers would not have to cover vision care services or eyeglasses for children even if it is impossible for a child to be successful in school if they can't see.
5. Insurers also would not be required to cover dental care, a horrible return to the days when lack of coverage could cause a child to die from an infected tooth that could have been addressed for about 100.
6. Repealing health reform would jeopardize the future of the successful Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a federal-state program that offers low or no-cost coverage for families who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to buy their own coverage. CHIP and Medicaid have been crucial for families during this recession, ensuring that coverage for kids has remained stable despite the downturn in the economy.
7. Children with terminal illnesses would be returned to the days when they would not be able to get compassionate end-of-life hospice care unless they agreed to forgo looking for a cure for their illness.
8. Insurers would be allowed to resume the practice of charging co-payments for preventive health services, including essential well-baby and well-child visits, and vaccinations, creating financial disincentives for parents to get care for their children that keeps them healthy.
9. Children in foster care would no longer qualify for Medicaid beyond age 18.
10. New efforts to eliminate bureaucratic red tape and streamline enrollment processes for children who are already eligible but not enrolled in public health coverage would suffer if health reform was repealed. Nearly two-thirds of children who are uninsured actually qualify for coverage but face significant barriers that make it difficult for them to sign-up or re-enroll for coverage.
While we urge Members of Congress to set their sights on moving forward with implementation of the “Affordable Care Act” rather than attempt to repeal pieces of it, we must also ensure that we protect both Medicaid and CHIP. Working in tandem, these programs have dramatically reduced the number of uninsured children in this country over the last decade. While the families who rely on these programs don’t take them for granted, most Americans don’t fully understand that more than one-third of all children rely on Medicaid and CHIP for their vaccinations, well-child checkups, and other critically important health services.
Now is not the time to turn back the clock on the important progress we have made for children. When we help children grow and succeed, we are paving the way for our country's next generation of workers and leaders. Protecting the health of our nation’s children is not just the right thing to do. It is one of the best investments we can make as a nation.
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Bruce Lesley
President, First Focus
@brucelesley on Twitter
www.firstfocus.net