Alaska needs innovative health care plan for children

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Alaska needs innovative health care plan for children
February 24th, 2009
Pat Senner

Every day young people come into my office at Covenant House seeking help for a variety of health problems. Some have minor illnesses such as bronchitis. Some need mental health services. Some have life-threatening illnesses such as leukemia or diabetes. Finding a payment source that allows these young people to obtain the health care they need is one of my main challenges.

It is estimated that in Alaska 13.4 percent of the children ages 0-18 have no insurance. Most of these children come from working families who earn too much to qualify for Denali KidCare, yet can't afford to purchase health insurance on their own. Overall 84 percent of Alaska's uninsured individuals are in working families.

For a mother in her thirties with two young children to purchase private insurance in Alaska could cost $785 a month or $9,420 per year. For a family earning $40,000 a year this would equal nearly a fourth of their income.

Instead of paying this amount, families decide to take a chance that they won't have anything serious happen. I always warn people that a broken leg alone can cost you over $20,000. Families with children with serious illnesses, such as diabetes, may not be able to find private insurance at all because of "preexisting conditions."

At the national level, the current strategy to reduce the number of uninsured is to put together a patchwork of coverage. Programs such as Denali KidCare are one of the main components. Denali KidCare is attractive to states because 65 percent of the cost is provided by the federal government.

This legislative session several bills are being considered that would make Denali KidCare available to more Alaska children and pregnant women. Sen. Bettye Davis has sponsored SB 13, which would raise the income eligibility to 200 percent of the federal poverty line. (Most states have opened their children's health insurance program further than that, to get as many of the children covered as possible.).

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Anchorage Sen. Bill Wielechowski has introduced SB 87, which would expand Denali KidCare to children in families with incomes up to three times the federal poverty level. Families with incomes between the 200 percent to 300 percent of the federal poverty level would pay a premium ranging from $240 to $1,200 per year. On the House side, Rep. Mike Hawker introduced a similar plan, with an annual premium paid by families with incomes in the 175 percent to 250 percent of the federal poverty level.

Gov. Palin has publicly supported restoring eligibility back to 200 percent of the federal poverty level. This would provide an additional 1,300 children and 225 pregnant women with coverage.

As Alaska tackles the problem of finding health care coverage for all its residents, we need to be flexible and innovative. Our first efforts should be to find coverage for our children. Providing them with a healthy start to life has the biggest payoff in the long run. During childhood, the patterns are set that last a lifetime. Having healthy children increases their ability to communicate and learn, to exercise and play and have a positive outlook on life.

I encourage you to contact your legislators and the governor and voice your support for increasing health coverage in Denali KidCare.

Pat Senner is a nurse at Covenant House Alaska, a shelter for homeless and at-risk teenagers in Anchorage.

© Copyright 2009, The Anchorage Daily News, a subsidiary of The McClatchy Company