Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
1st Floor State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814
Re: Proposed Cap on Healthy Families Enrollment
Governor Schwarzenegger:
On behalf of Teachers for Healthy Kids, a joint endeavor of the California Teachers Association and the California Association of Health Plans, funded by The California Endowment, we are writing to strongly urge you not to cap enrollment in the state's Healthy Families public health insurance program.
In its second year now, Teachers for Healthy Kids informs parents about Healthy Families. It grew out of our shared concern that California has a large number of children who are eligible for state-supported health insurance, but not enrolled in the Healthy Families and Medi-Cal programs. Currently there are 1.7 million uninsured children in the state. About 1.2 million kids are eligible for these programs, but still not enrolled.
We appreciate your advocacy for children and schools. We understand the enormous budget problems the state faces, but feel that the last place to cut is a program that offers low-cost health care to children aged 18 and younger. The cost of one child's visit to the emergency room can be equal to the cost of one year's premiums for a child in this program. We know that teachers can't teach to an empty desk, and that studies show a direct link between health and student achievement.
Who are these children who could be denied coverage by a cap in enrollment? Most live in families with working parents with incomes between 100 to 250 percent of the federal poverty level, which is from $18,000 up to about $46,000 for a family of four, but without access to employer-based coverage. Families pay a small premium each month that gives them access through a managed care health plan to medical, dental and vision coverage.
Thanks to outreach efforts by the 335,000-member CTA and health plans, and the support of groups like Children NOW, the Children's Partnership and the 100% Campaign, Teachers for Healthy Kids is working. More kids are insured, healthy and ready to learn. More than half of California's teachers now know about Healthy Families. The League of Cities this fall passed a resolution to link cities to our efforts.
An average of 12,000 California children are enrolled monthly in Healthy Families. The state must continue to provide the one-third state match to bring in the federal SCHIP dollars for the program. When Florida capped enrollment in its similar program last July, a waiting list of 42,000 children developed within five months. California's kids deserve better. We urge you to reconsider this budget cut proposal.
Sincerely,
Barbara E. Kerr, CTA President
Steve Tough, CEO, California Association of Health Plans