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Tough choices Thursday, May 17, 2007 For three months last year, Beckie Fosmo had to choose between paying the bills and taking care of her 10-year-old daughter’s Attention Deficit Disorder and asthma. “Being a single mother, there was a time period, three months, that I had no insurance for her,” Fosmo said, “and I’m actually still paying those medical bills.” But thanks to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, a government program that extends medical coverage to children in low- to moderate-income families, Fosmo said she no longer has to choose between her daughter’s well-being and making ends meet. “It was hard for me, because being a single mom, I work full-time, and so I don’t have the benefit of getting any assistance from Medicaid or the government other than (the State Children’s Health Insurance Program),” Fosmo said. “I make too much money to get Medicaid, but I don’t make enough to pay for a regular insurance, so I don’t know what we would do without it, honestly. Without it we would be in a huge bind.” However, for more than 2,000 eligible families in In his 2008 budget request, President Bush asked for an additional $4.8 billion over the next five years for SCHIP, according to the White House Office of Management and Budget. But according to the Congressional Budget Office and the Colorado SCHIP Coalition, this funding increase will not be enough to cover eligible children and pregnant women. A May 2007 report from the Congressional Budget Office projects SCHIP will require $14 billion in additional funds over the next five years to keep up with “projected increases in health spending per enrollee.” Over the past decade, the Congressional Budget Office said, SCHIP “has significantly reduced the number of low-income children who are uninsured.” Of children whose household income was at or double the federal poverty line “the uninsurance rate fell from 22.5 percent in 1996 (the year before SCHIP was enacted) to 16.9 percent in 2005,” the report said. A lack of adequate funding, according to a local health care expert, could
damage Steve Erkenbrack, vice president for legal and government affairs for Rocky Mountain Health Plans, said SCHIP helps reduce health care costs across the board. Inadequate funding for SCHIP, he said, would have a “significant impact”
on the work of the Senate Bill 208 Commission, which is mulling plans to
address “The more kids you get covered, the easier it is to address the remaining uninsured population,” said Erkenbrack, who sits on the commission. He said children who do not have health coverage are more likely to “expensively” receive their primary care in an emergency room. “If this was to go away, in essence, it would cost the state more money to cover the uninsured,” said Lorez Meinhold, a program officer with the Colorado Health Foundation. “For every dollar we put in (SCHIP), we get a $2 match by the federal government. It is one of the most cost-effective ways we can cover children and pregnant women in the state.” Meinhold said it would be unfortunate if the program was not properly funded, especially in light of how the program helped women such as Fosmo turn their situations around. Since enrolling in SCHIP in December, Fosmo said she has been able to afford ADD medication for her daughter, which has boosted her performance in school. “We actually just went to her (parent-teacher) conferences, and she has excelled beyond belief in all of her classes due to the medication she is on now,” Fosmo said. “She was way below grade level in her reading, math and language. &hellip Now that she’s on the medication, she’s soaring, she’s doing so great.” Fosmo said she hopes federal lawmakers will embrace success stories like hers and properly fund SCHIP. Not funding the program, she said, “would be very tragic for parents in situations like myself.” &bull Mike Saccone can be reached via e-mail at msaccone@gjds.com. |
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