Aug 24, 2008 11:57 am US/Pacific
1000s Of Children May Lose State Health Insurance
LOS ANGELES
One of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's biggest accomplishments, a health insurance safety net for California's children, is in danger of throwing thousands of kids into emergency rooms for their primary medical care, it was reported Sunday.
The Los Angeles Times has analyzed the state's Healthy Families program, and found that 7.3 percent of California children have no health insurance, a percentage that has begun to increase after years of shrinking.
In addition, the state Healthy Families fund is at risk in the battle over the state budget, and some 850,000 very-low income families may face increases of about $3 per month in insurance premiums, causing many of them to drop out of the program, The Times said.
Some 19,000 families are expected to bail out of the insurance program once premiums are raised to $51 a month, an impossible cost for a poverty-level breadwinner.
Children's insurance programs have been set up in only 30 of the state's 58 counties, and even those are experiencing cash problems.
The Children's Health Initiative of Greater Los Angeles has been left unable to enroll any child older than 5 since October, and that agency is scrambling for funds to stay afloat this fall, The Times reported.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
