Health nightmare for 24,000 PA kids

As it is in the rest of the country, political differences divide Pennsylvanians more often than we’d like. But when it comes to our kids, we’re often on the same page.

In Pennsylvania, when it comes to healthcare for all of our kids, it’s a different story. But we’ll get to that in a moment.

Partisanship took a backseat to common sense in Illinois earlier this month when Governor Bruce Rauner, a Republican, approved extending his state’s ALL KIDS health coverage program another three years. The bill, which passed the Democratic-controlled legislature, had the support of several Republicans including the Senate Republican leader.

Polls show education is our top priority in the Commonwealth, whatever our political stripe. The enactment of the bipartisan fair funding formula for PA schools was certainly encouraging and made possible by Pennsylvanians declaring it an imperative.

Pre-K for PA continues to gain steam just as pre-k made national headlines this week thanks to a stunning poll that showed 78% of Donald Trump supporters and 98% of Hilary Clinton supporters across the country want the federal government to make quality pre-k more accessible and affordable to low- and middle-income families.

We all agree children can’t be held responsible for their life circumstances, including the circumstances of their parents, and that it’s in everyone’s best interest that we work to give all kids equal opportunities to succeed in life so that the Commonwealth can prosper.

We rallied around our kids way back in 1992, when Pennsylvania created the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, which granted coverage to children who did not quality for Medicaid and whose families couldn’t afford private coverage.

In addition to preventing children from suffering needlessly due poor health outcomes, there was the broader rationale that uninsured sick kids in classrooms had obvious implications to every kid in those same classrooms.

Similarly, those without insurance don’t get treated for small problems and often find themselves in Emergency Rooms once they become serious health issues.

The moral and pragmatic reasons were clear and Pennsylvania’s CHIP became the national model for the federal CHIP program.

But our story isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. There’s a grey cloud that hangs over the state’s CHIP program: We missed 24,000 kids, including 7,600 living here in Southeaster PA. These children are barred from enrolling in health insurance, including CHIP, because they are undocumented.

Similar to the plight of those uninsured children before CHIP became a reality, undocumented children are forced to go without even the most basic car and can end up in ERs with avoidable health crises. The costs don’t stop there. A Pennsylvania pediatric hospital spends roughly $4,600 per undocumented child in uncompensated care—twice what it would cost annually to cover that child in CHIP.

Pennsylvania receives $92 million in federal funding for CHIP and only a small portion of that federal money would be needed to cover undocumented children.

To close this tragic coverage gap, PCCY founded the Dream Care Coalition, which is comprised of over 60 key stakeholders (and growing) from across the Commonwealth. For more information about the Coalition, visit childrenfirstpa.org/dream.

When it comes to the healthcare of all of our kids, Pennsylvania doesn’t necessarily have a bad story to tell, just an incomplete one. Here’s to the final chapter.

We did it! Thanks to everyone who helped spread the word and contacted their state legislators about the charter reform bill that presented such a danger to every district in the state. READ WHAT HAPPENED

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Despite overwhelming GOP support, pre-k won’t be in the Republican Party platform because it “inserts the state in the family relationship in the very early stages of a child’s life.” READ IT HERE

“As a school district, we look forward to continuing to work with all the parties involved to rewrite that [charter] legislation so it ensures high quality charter schools and does not drain financial resources from the district,” said Philadelphia schools superintendent William Hite. READ MORE