About Healthy Kids: In the News
In California, every child deserves health care
Published on May 10, 2005
© 2005 - The Press Democrat
Byline: Dr. Robert Schultz
Page: B1
Column: Close to Home
Despite California's ranking as one of the wealthiest states in the nation, we are failing our children when it comes to providing access to health insurance. In fact, California ranks almost last, at 45th in the nation, based on the number of uninsured children in the state. In a state as affluent as ours, we can and must do better than this.
We can start by making sure that every child in Sonoma County has health insurance.
Approximately 800,000 children in California are lacking basic health insurance, and more than 8,000 uninsured children live in Sonoma County. Of these 8,000 local kids, nine out of 10 are from homes where one or both parents work. However, many do not have access to affordable employer-sponsored health insurance.
The good news is that roughly two-thirds of Sonoma County's uninsured children are eligible for public programs but are not currently enrolled.
Study after study confirms that children with health insurance are more likely to get the care they need, are healthier and perform better in school. Healthier childhood leads to improved workforce abilities and economic successes. Equally important, preventative care saves time, money and lives. A relationship with a family doctor ensures proper screening, immunizations and eradicates the need for costly emergency room treatments, which are absorbed by all of us.
Despite the views of some that this issue is simply too complex and overwhelming to solve, the vision of insuring California's children is possible and is within our grasp. With a few relatively small reforms and investments from government and active support from community leaders, every child in Sonoma County can be insured.
Insuring all of our children is a vision worth pursuing. Solutions to the issue of uninsured children are being developed locally and at the state level. Complementing Healthy Kids Sonoma County, the program developed by our county's local Children's Health Initiative, a new statewide initiative called Californians for Healthy Kids has the goal of providing affordable health coverage for all California children by 2007.
Californians for Healthy Kids is an unprecedented bipartisan coalition of teachers, United Way chapters, business leaders, parents, health care providers and children's advocates. The main strategy of Californians for Healthy Kids is to bring together local efforts, called Children's Health Initiatives, under one statewide program.
The core elements for the statewide solution are in place. Employer-based insurance, which now covers 50 percent of California's children, and publicly funded programs serve as strong building blocks on which to insure all children. Efforts designed to improve the efficiency of existing publicly funded state insurance programs, including modernizing and simplifying how children get enrolled and stay enrolled in coverage, is also a key effort in this initiative.
Our success in securing health insurance for all of California's children relies on the active involvement and support of all sectors in the community. Now is the time for individuals to step up and advocate on the issue of uninsured children and comprehensive health care among opinion leaders and potential funders.
Working together as a community, we can provide access to health care for all of our children. Californians can lead the nation in ensuring that every child has affordable health coverage -- and a promising future.
Dr. Robert Schultz is physician-in-chief at Santa Rosa Kaiser Permanente Medical Center and serves on the board of directors of Sonoma-Mendocino-Lake United Way. For more information on the statewide coalition, go to www.100percentcampaign.org. For more information, call 528-4485.