CHILDREN'S DEFENSE FUND WELCOMES HEALTH COALITION'S COMMITMENT TO COVERING CHILDREN FIRST

WASHINGTON, DC The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) welcomed a proposal announced today by the Health Coverage Coalition for the Uninsured (HCCU), consisting of health insurance companies, doctors, hospitals, and health advocates, that put forward the goal of covering children first as part of an overarching effort to reduce the number of uninsured Americans. While applauding HCCU’s stated goal to cover all children, CDF President Marian Wright Edelman noted that the details of the HCCU proposal fall significantly short of achieving this goal. By contrast, the proposal released by CDF last week does provide health care coverage to all children.

"CDF welcomes the commitment to covering children first and is particularly pleased the HCCU proposal includes two key components: eliminating some of the barriers and red tape that block access for children who are currently eligible for coverage and eliminating the ceiling on federal funding to provide health care coverage for these children," said Edelman. "But there are several additional steps not included in this plan that are critical to reaching the more than 9 million uninsured children in America. While the HCCU states that 'the goal of covering almost all children is feasible,' CDF's proposal makes the goal of providing health care coverage to ALL children a reality. Congress has the opportunity and ability to take the additional steps needed to guarantee health care coverage to ALL children this year."

CDF supports the key reasons cited in the HCCU proposal for why it makes sense to focus on covering children first: there is strong public support for covering children; it is less expensive to cover children than adults; covering children will create the infrastructure needed to extend coverage to adults; and the timing is ripe with the reauthorization of SCHIP funding. But while the HCCU plan takes modest steps to provide for currently eligible children, millions of additional children would remain uninsured.

In contrast to CDF's proposal to provide health care access to all children, the HCCU plan:

• Does not increase eligibility levels. Under the HCCU plan, current inequities between the states would continue and no additional children would be eligible for coverage. CDF's plan would expand eligibility to all children with family incomes at or below 300% of the federal poverty level ($60,000 for a family of four).
• Does not guarantee coverage for SCHIP children. Under the HCCU proposal, states would continue to be free to establish waiting lists, reduce eligibility, etc. to save state funds. Under CDF's proposal, all eligible children would be guaranteed coverage regardless of their state of residence.
• Does not require the states to auto-enroll children. HCCU's proposal does not mandate auto-enrollment with other means-tested programs—it only allows states to do so if they wish. Under CDF's proposal, all children eligible for other means-tested programs would be automatically enrolled in every state.
• Does not eliminate other barriers to enrolling and continued enrollment. HCCU's proposal does not eliminate bureaucratic barriers to enrollment. Under CDF's proposal, applications for health care coverage would be short and simple to complete; children would be presumed immediately eligible for services; and obstacles to enroll and stay enrolled would be eliminated.
• Does not address benefit packages or variations among the states. Under HCCU's proposal, issues like mental health, vision, or dental coverage would not be addressed. CDF's proposal would provide for all medically necessary care.
• Does not address provider reimbursement issues. The HCCU proposal does not address issues of actual access to care. CDF’s proposal would increase provider rates to make sure that children have access to needed health care professionals.
• Does not provide coverage for pregnant women. HCCU's proposal does not provide coverage for low-income pregnant women. Under CDF's proposal, pregnant women with incomes at or below 300% of the federal poverty level are eligible for all medically necessary health and mental health services until at least 60 days after the birth of the child.

Rather than increasing eligibility, streamlining the process, and helping providers treat more children, the HCCU proposes a tax credit for low-income families, thus forcing a choice between paying for health care and family needs. This complicated tax credit will not go far in ensuring that more children have access to the health care they need.

"There are not two classes of children in America and we need to make sure efforts to extend health coverage do not perpetuate current disparities," said Edelman. "There are a number of other proposals to address these additional challenges and we need to combine the best of all to get the job done right. CDF looks forward to working with this coalition and others to advance the best policies for children in 2007 -- guaranteeing all children the health and mental health coverage they need."

The CDF proposal is available at www.childrensdefense.org/healthychild.

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The Children's Defense Fund Leave No Child Behind® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.