WASHINGTON, DC – Today, two papers highlighting the importance of Medicaid as a safety net for children were released by First Focus, a bipartisan children’s advocacy organization.
The papers were authored by respected healthcare experts and are the first in a series of papers First Focus has commissioned to examine the role of children in the debate over national health reform. The series, entitled Insuring our Future: Addressing the Needs of Children in Health Reform asks the fundamental question “Is it good for our children?”
The first report, authored by Harbage Consulting, LLC, analyzes the potentially adverse effects that the Healthy Americans Act (S. 391), legislation introduced by Senators Wyden and Bennett, may have on children’s health coverage. It also proposes solutions for improving the legislation. The Healthy Americans Act calls for a significant dismantling of Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The report finds that this could fracture coverage for children, making it difficult for families to access the care children need for healthy development. Ending Medicaid as we know it also may undermine the systems of care and protections currently afforded to our nation’s lowest income children. In addition, the report concludes the legislation possibly will damage the health care infrastructure that supports the full array of children’s needs. This would place children with special needs particularly at risk of lacking the coverage and supports necessary to be healthy.
The second report, authored by Sara Rosenbaum, JD, of The George Washington University Medical Center’s School of Public Health and Health Services, highlights the important aspects of Medicaid that must be protected for children during health reform. She concludes that any system of care that does not include continuous and comprehensive coverage capable of meeting the full continuum of child health needs would diminish health services for low-income and disabled children. This includes appropriate access to care as well as coordination of educational, community health, and social service resources.
Rosenbaum proposes, instead, a system that strengthens and coordinates Medicaid for children with a reformed health system to improve care delivery for children.
“These papers lay out key issues that are critical for children in the health reform debate,” said Bruce Lesley, president of First Focus. “Both reports highlight how Medicaid is not just health insurance, but a system of child-specific and developmentally appropriate health services and social supports. The benefits include transportation and targeted case management delivered through private providers, as well and a safety net system that includes community health centers and school health clinics. All of these critical services for children are typically neglected by private health insurance providers. The stakes are high for children when it comes to health reform. They have much to gain but also much to lose. Indeed, these two reports indicate that when it comes to insuring our nation’s most vulnerable low-income and disabled children, health reform should seek to strengthen and build upon Medicaid rather than undermine this critical safety net system.”