The one group denied health care in Arizona: poor children

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Arizona's Tea-Publican controlled legislature is unique: it is the only legislature heartless enough to deny health care coverage to poor children eligible for the S-CHIP ("Kidscare") program. This is a notch group of children whose parent(s) do not qualify for Medicaid (AHCCCS) health insurance, but otherwise would qualify for Kidscare. Enrollment in the KidsCare program has been frozen since January 1, 2010 due to lack of funding for the program. Our Tea-Publican controlled legislature has shown no interst in restoring funding to the Kidscare program.

Arizona is one of the poorest states in the country, and among the worst states for uninsured children:

Nationally the number of children without health insurance dropped between 2009 and 2011, but not in Arizona, a new study says.

Arizona has one of the worst rates of uninsured children in the country, says the report, released Tuesday by Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families.

Nearly 210,000 children in Arizona do not have health insurance, which amounts to 13 percent of the state's children - only Texas and Nevada had worse rates, the researchers found.  And unlike most of the country, the rate here got worse between 2009 and 2011, the study shows.

In terms of numbers, the study shows half of the country's uninsured children live in six states, including Arizona. The others are Texas, California, Florida, Georgia and New York.

“Without health care coverage, Arizona children don’t have their own doctor to treat them when they’re sick or keep them healthy for school and all the other activities in their lives,” said Dana Wolfe Naimark, President and CEO of the Phoenix-based Children’s Action Alliance. 

“Our own state policies have put more children at risk.”

Arizona is the only state to abandon its federal children's health program for kids from low  income working families, known as KidsCare. The state froze enrollment four years ago.

Temporary coverage for kids was created with a combination of hospital funding and federal funds.  But that coverage is  set to expire at the end of this year and enrollment in regular KidsCare will remain frozen and eventually dwindle down to zero.

[O]fficials with the Children's Action Alliance fear that without restoring the KidsCare program, many of the state's children will remain uninsured.

It is an axiom that Tea-Publicans' concern for human life begins at conception and ends at birth. "You're on your own, baby!"

Comments

[Stephen]

Arizona definitely lacks in some serious areas.

[Thucydides]

When do poor children need health care? When their hands, other bones and organs are crushed in auto accidents. Thats the moment of truth. Socialized mddicine completely fails this test. Its focused on cheaper.

When do poor children need health care? When they have lukemia and other forms of cancer. Socialized medicine completely fails this test.

Yes, you will make sure that they can periodically overdosed with uneeded antibiotics, but real healthcare, you will strip that away from all of us in your false quest for "fairness".