Health plan for California children may end new enrollment

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As California sheds jobs at an alarming rate, increasing the ranks of the uninsured, the state-run Healthy Families program for children is preparing to close enrollment for the first time in its 10-year history.New enrollment in the program, which provides medical, dental and vision care to more than 900,000 children whose families earn too much to qualify for Medi-Cal but not enough to buy insurance, has averaged more than 27,000 a month during the past year.That is an all-time high, and has already created a $17.2 million deficit in the program. Lesley Cummings, executive director of the state's Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board, which administers Healthy Families, has told the board the only way to manage costs is to limit enrollment.Failure to do, she said, could ultimately force the state to stop coverage for children who are already in the program.Cummings' recommendation is expected to be discussed at a board meeting next week. Without an infusion of new money -- unlikely as California grapples with an $11.2-billion deficit -- the board is expected to vote Dec. 17 on freezing enrollment the next day and establishing a waiting list.Advocates for children say that with unemployment in California at 7.7 percent, the highest in a dozen years, 162,000 eligible children would be denied coverage between December and June.They said families without coverage will have to seek care at free county health clinics, where available, and that many will turn to hospital emergency rooms as a last resort."More than ever, California families are relying on these essential services that provide affordable, comprehensive health coverage for their children," Wilma Chan, a vice president for Children Now, said in a statement.Even before the recent acceleration of job losses, health care advocates predicted that the budget the governor signed in September would make it impossible for more than 250,000 children to obtain health coverage during the next four years -- adding to the ranks of 6.5 million Californians who are already uninsured.While it was not widely publicized, Cummings said the budget also called for closing enrollment in Healthy Families after Dec. 18."The budget discussions were so protracted and complex that I don't think it was the first thought in most minds at the time," Cummings said.The only development that could head off freezing enrollment, she said, is "more dollars to make up the shortfall ... "That has happened a few times in the past," she said. "But this is just such a mind-boggling, horrendous budget year, and there's lots of people needing lots of money in lots of programs," Cummings said.Democratic Sen. Darrell Steinberg, who takes over as Senate president pro tem on Dec. 1, said that despite the state budget crisis, children's health care should be a top priority.Steinberg said he has been in discussions with officials who administer the cash-flush First 5 programs in the state and with foundations "about stepping up."He noted that President-elect Barack Obama has also signaled he wants to increase spending for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), the federal program that provides $2 for every $1 that California spends on Healthy Families.But the federal government is also strapped for cash. Previous SCHIP expansions were vetoed by President Bush, who argued the program should stick to the working poor.With the Republican president and Democratic-controlled Congress at an impasse, the funding allocated this year for the program is scheduled to run out in March.E-mail Aurelio Rojas of the Sacramento Bee at arojas(at)sacbee.com (Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)