Why Coverage Is Important

• Approximately 683,000 children are uninsured in California. ¹
  
  
• There are 385,000 California children that are eligible for either Healthy Families or Medi-Cal, yet they are not enrolled. ²
  
  
• Nationwide, the number of uninsured children in the US is growing by nearly 2,000 children a day. ³
  
  
• California ranks 43rd out of 50 states on the percentage of children who are uninsured. ⁴
  
  
• A November 2006 poll commissioned by United Ways of California found that 81% of voters support ensuring that all kids have health insurance. ⁵
  
  
• In California, Latinos are nearly 3 times as likely as whites to be uninsured. ⁶
  
  
• Young Black and Latino children are twice as likely to be uninsured as white children. ⁷
  
  
• California’s Children’s Health Initiatives provide health coverage to the uninsured, and save millions of taxpayer dollars. ⁸
  
  
• Children with health insurance learn better – for instance, children covered by Healthy Families showed 63% improvement in paying attention and keeping up with school activities over their previous performance when uninsured. ⁹
  
  
• When low-income enrollment increased in Massachusetts by 27.6%, the number of hospital uncompensated care patients accounts decreased by 27.7%. ¹⁰
  
  
• Only Louisiana and Wisconsin spend less per child Medicaid recipient than California, due in part to extremely low provider reimbursement rates. ¹¹
  
  
• There are only 46 primary care providers for each 100,000 Medi-Cal recipients in California; the federal minimum standard is 60-80 providers per 100,000 enrollees. ¹²
  
  
• Children with continuous health coverage are cheap to treat. Medi-Cal costs for children averaged $5.9 million in the six months before a gap in coverage, but more than double to $13.5 million in the first month after the gap, when children are sicker. ¹³
  
  
• When Medi-Cal stopped requiring children to re-enroll every three months, more children began to receive continuous health coverage. As a result of better access to primary and preventive care, the state immediately accrued $17 million in savings (over two years) because children were hospitalized less frequently (by 15,635 fewer hospital days for preventable conditions such as asthma, pneumonia, and gastroenteritis). ¹⁴
  
  
• Pregnant women with poor oral health are 7 times more likely to have a premature and/or low birth weight delivery. ¹⁵
  
  
• Across the country, approximately a quarter of Hispanics and blacks had a dental visit during the year, compared to almost half of whites. ¹⁶
  
  
• When the Federal Government mandates a cap on Healthy Families enrollment at 250% federal poverty level (FPL), California children are hit especially hard. A family at 250% FPL in San Francisco has a lower standard of living than a family at 150% in Atlanta. ¹⁷
  
  
• California is 42nd out of 51 (including DC) in terms of employer-based coverage for children. ¹⁸
  
  
• Research has shown that increasing premiums by 1% in Healthy Families would depress enrollment by 15%. ¹⁹
  
  
• In an August 2008 survey, 22% of consumers said that economy-related woes were causing them to go to the doctor less often. About 11% said they've scaled back on prescription drugs to save money. ²⁰
  
  
• 28% of the nation's 8.1 million uninsured children have at least one parent insured through his/her employer. ²¹
  
  
• 88% of uninsured children have at least one working parent. ²²
  
  
• California spends about $40 million a year re-enrolling children who are unnecessarily dropped from Medi-Cal. ²³
  
  
• The Federal government‘s total investment spending for children in 2006 was 1.6% of GDP; that piece of the pie is projected to decline by as much as 29%. ²⁴
  
  
• Between 2000 and 2007, family health care premiums in California rose by 95.8 percent while median earnings went up only 19.3 percent. ²⁵
  
  
• For family health coverage provided through workplaces in California, annual premiums rose from $6,227 to $12,194, an increase of $5,967. ²⁶
  
  

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¹ 2007 California Health Interview Survey, University of California Los Angeles Center for Health Policy Research, www.chis.ucla.edu.
² Ibid.
³ February 7, 2008 Memorandum, Georgetown Center for Children and Families; http://ccf.georgetown.edu/index/cms-filesystem-action?file=ccf%20publications/federal%20schip%20policy/ccffy2009%20budget%20schip%20memo.pdf.
⁴ September, 2006, No Shelter From the Storm: America’s Uninsured Children; Families USA; http://www.familiesusa.org/issues/childrens-health/campaign/publications/no-shelter-from-the-storm.html.
⁵ 2006, ‘Get the Facts,’ Cover California’s Kids Coalition; http://www.covercaliforniaskids.org/facts.php
⁶ 2007, Snapshot: California’s Uninsured; California HealthCare Foundation; http://www.chcf.org/documents/insurance/SnapshotUninsured07.pdf.
⁷ March 1, 2008, National Summit on America’s Children; U.S. House of Representatives; http://www.speaker.gov/pdf/CS3108.pdf.
⁸ Michael R. Cousineau, et al.; December, 2007; ‘Covering California’s Kids Evaluation: Children’s Health Initiatives Have Helped Prevent Over 1,000 Unnecessary Child Hospitalizations Annually,’ Center for Community Health Studies, University of Southern California; http://communityhealth.usc.edu/USC%20Center%20for%20Community%20Health%20Studies/Center%20for%20Community %20Health%20Studies%20at%20USC_files/Preventable%20Hospitalizations%20Brief.%2012-7.pdf.
⁹ Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board, “The Healthy Families Program Health Status Assessment (PedsQLTM) Final Report,” Revised September 2004; http://www.mrmib.ca.gov/MRMIB/HFP/PedsQL3.pdf
¹⁰ February 13, 2008, Massachusetts Hospital Association; Hospital Uncompensated Care Trends & Health Care Reform; http://www.mhalink.org/freecareanalysis/08-02-12 MHA ANALYSIS uncompensated care trends.doc
¹¹ Medicaid Payments per Enrollee, FY 2005; Kaiser Family Foundation, State Health Facts; http://www.statehealthfacts.org/comparetable.jsp?ind=183&cat=4.
¹² May 2007, ‘Medi-Cal Facts and Figures: A Look at California’s Medicaid Program,’ California HealthCare Foundation; http://www.chcf.org/documents/policy/MediCalFactsAndFigures2007.pdf.
¹³ Gerry Fairbrother and Joseph Schuchter, March 2008; ‘Stability and Churning in Medi-Cal and Healthy Families,’ The California Endowment; http://www.calendow.org/uploadedFiles/Stability%20%20Chrurning%20Report.pdf.
¹⁴ Andrew Bindman, et. al.; October, 2008; ‘Medicaid Re-Enrollment Policies and Children's Risk of Hospitalizations for Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions,’ The Commonwealth Fund; http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=711359.
¹⁵ Children Now Facts & Figures; see http://www.childrennow.org/issues/health/oral_health.html.
¹⁶ Laurie E. Felland, et. al.; July, 2008; ‘Community Efforts to Expand Dental Services for Low-Income People,’ Center for Studying Health System Change, Issue Brief No. 122; see http://www.hschange.org/CONTENT/1000/1000.pdf.
¹⁷ Harbage et. al.; July, 2007; ‘The Future of California’s SCHIP Program: Analyzing the Proposed Federal Legislation,’ California HealthCare Foundation; see http://www.100percentcampaign.org/assets/pdf/fs-080506.pdf.
¹⁸ US Census Bureau; Health Insurance Coverage Status and Type of Coverage by State – Children Under 18: 1999 to 2007; see http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/hlthins/historic/index.html.
¹⁹ April 15, 2008 Memorandum, Georgetown Center for Children and Families; http://www.100percentcampaign.org/assets/pdf/fs-080415.pdf.
National Association of Insurance Commissioners News Release, August 12, 2008; ‘Weakening U.S. Economy Takes Toll on Americans’ Health: New Research Reveals Consumers Reducing Medical Visits to Save Money;’ http://www.naic.org/Releases/2008_docs/economy_health_toll.htm.
²¹ Jennifer E. DeVoe, et. al.; October, 2008; ‘Uninsured Children and Adolescents with Insured Parents,’ Journal of the American Medical Association,’ Vol. 300, No. 16; http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/300/16/1904.
²² September, 2006, No Shelter From the Storm: America’s Uninsured Children; Families USA; http://www.familiesusa.org/issues/childrens-health/campaign/publications/no-shelter-from-the-storm.html.
²³ Gerry Fairbrother, April, 2005; ‘How Much Does Churning in Medi-Cal Cost?’  The California Endowment; http://www.calendow.org/uploadedFiles/churning_medical.pdf.
²⁴ C. Eugene Steuerle et. al.; November, 2007; ‘Investing in America’s Children;’ Partnership for America’s Success; http://www.partnershipforsuccess.org/uploads/200801_UrbanPaperFINAL.pdf.
²⁵ September, 2008; ‘Premiums Versus Paychecks: A Growing Burden for California’s Workers;’ Families USA; http://www.familiesusa.org/assets/pdfs/premiums-vs-paychecks-2008/california.pdf.
²⁶ Ibid.