A Democratic View

With Crossover Day (the last day a bill can pass in the House or Senate to be considered by the other chamber) now having come and gone, one bill involving children’s health care moves ahead, and one does not. House Bill 340, with co-sponsors including Rich Golick (R-Smyrna) and Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs), reduces the income level to qualify for Georgia PeachCare for children of families whose income is below 235% of the poverty level, to income below 200% of the poverty level. The result is all but certain to be an increase in the number of uninsured children in Georgia. Discretion is also given under HB 340 to revise the threshold to 185%, and eliminate vision benefits from Georgia PeachCare. In contrast, House Bill 324, “the Children’s Health Insurance Act,” provided for the creation of a health insurance plan that would have covered all of Georgia’s children. Two of the co-sponsors of this bill were Rob Teilhet (D-Smyrna), and Judy Manning (R-Marietta). Instead of supporting HB 324, Republicans in the House chose to cut the number of children from Georgia PeachCare.

The direction in which the Republican-controlled General Assembly is now headed will increase the number of uninsured children in Georgia by 3,000 – 5,000 a year, according to the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. These cuts to the number of children from Georgia PeachCare come in spite of the fact that Georgia is sixth among all states with the most uninsured children. In the long run, signing up more, and not fewer children for Georgia PeachCare, will save Georgia taxpayers money. When uninsured children become ill, and utilize expensive hospital emergency room care, it costs us more money by running up future health care costs. Someone has to eventually pay for these costs. One way we can control future health care costs is to insure all of our children. This allows children to receive preventative, primary, and specialty care in physicians’ offices, instead of meeting their health needs only at critical times in emergency rooms.

The bi-partisan “Children’s Health Insurance Act,” found and declared that: (i) All children need quality, timely health care in order to achieve maximum physical and mental health, to benefit fully from their educational opportunities, and to mature into the productive citizens ready to meet tomorrow’s Georgia needs; (ii) Lack of health insurance is associated with low utilization of appropriate health services, poorer health, poorer school achievement, and lower lifetime earnings; and (iii) At least 300,000 Georgia children are uninsured, and many others have unstable or inadequate insurance.

In looking to cut costs, Governor Perdue and the Republican legislature, are now about to cut children. They see Georgia’s PeachCare program as too generous. Many Georgia Republican legislators believe that no government plan can possibly work as well as the private market. When President Bush’s budget eliminated the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (which helps fund Georgia’s PeachCare), the Board Chair of the American Medical Association, Cecil Wilson, M.D., stated that “reauthorizing this successful government program that covers children from lower income families is a must, and an important first step toward getting more Americans health care coverage.” Instead of a first step forward, Republicans are about to take us two steps back – and Georgia’s children, and our great state, will pay the price.