Corporate Partners:
Children's Health Reports
Building on Our Success: Health Care Reform and Pennsylvania's Children
View the Report | Press Release
Nearly 95 percent of Pennsylvania children have health insurance, a telling testament to the commonwealth’s long-term efforts to make health care coverage available to our youngest citizens. Yet there are still more than 100,000 Pennsylvania children lacking health insurance, and Pennsylvania’s leaders have a fiscal, societal and moral obligation to reduce those numbers. We know increasing the availability of children’s health insurance promotes preventive care, reduces emergency care, saves money and contributes to the collective well-being of our commonwealth.
The advent of federal health care reform gives Pennsylvania a powerful opportunity to strengthen its role as a national leader in providing health care coverage to children. In 2012, we will have a unique opportunity to build on our achievements through the establishment of the commonwealth’s health insurance exchange.
In December 2011, Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children issued a new report - Building on Our Success: Health Care Reform and Pennsylvania’s Children – that offers our guidance on how the health insurance exchange, as well as other aspects of the federal Affordable Care Act, can best benefit the commonwealth’s children. Our report outlines how Pennsylvania policymakers can best use all available resources to keep the commonwealth at the national forefront in providing affordable health insurance for children. The report also stresses the need to ensure children have the greatest possible access to all evidence-based health benefits, including behavioral health as well as physical health.
Why Medicaid Matters to Kids
Discussions in Washington regarding the U.S. deficit and what steps need to be taken to achieve debt reduction have resulted in a variety of options being explored by the President and Congress. One option under consideration would be to finance the Medicaid program through block grants to states.
Today, Medicaid operates as an entitlement program with a federal-state partnership that provides health care coverage for all individuals who meet established eligibility requirements. This includes many children as well as aged and disabled individuals who require financial assistance to gain coverage in order to pay for necessary medical services. States are eligible to be reimbursed by the federal government for Medicaid expenditures. Pennsylvania receives reimbursement from the federal government for approximately 56 percent of actual state Medicaid costs.
Block grants often have been utilized by the federal government to provide large sums of money to states or other regional jurisdictions for certain programs or services, but without strict provisions for how such money should be spent. By transforming Medicaid from an entitlement program into a block grant, Congress effectively would cap the federal government’s financial contribution to Medicaid to states.
Faces & Facts – Why Have 89,000 Children Lost Health Insurance?
There is a growing concern over children’s health care in Pennsylvania. In recent months, actions taken by the Department of Public Welfare have resulted in nearly 89,000 fewer children enrolled in Medicaid, with no satisfactory explanation for such a drastic enrollment decline. There has been no corresponding increase in CHIP enrollment, indicating tens of thousands of Pennsylvania children who had health insurance just a few months ago now lack any health care coverage. This raises serious concern about what is happening to these children.
Faces & Facts - Children In Need Losing Medicaid Coverage
Pennsylvania has a strong history of helping our kids have insurance coverage. From the inception of CHIP nearly 20 years ago to the Cover All Kids expansion in 2006, state leaders from both political parties have recognized that children with health care coverage do better in school and are more likely to grow up to be healthy, productive citizens. That commitment is in jeopardy.
Faces & Facts - Communities Helping Children Become Insured
Children's health isn't just a family issue – it's a community issue. A child’s health can impact everything from school attendance to a parent's job performance. That is why hundreds of organizations, such as community-based groups, church groups and medical facilities, have stepped up to help Pennsylvanians apply for health and human service benefits by registering as COMPASS Community Partners.
Faces & Facts - Children with Health Care Coverage Do Better in School
Children’s health is important to their academic success, and health insurance is key to helping children remain healthy and do well in school. Children with health insurance are more likely to avoid preventable childhood illnesses and, in turn, generally have better school attendance. Studies indicate uninsured children are 25 percent more likely to miss school, while reading scores among children without health insurance doubled after health care coverage was provided.
Faces & Facts - Protecting Health Care in Pennsylvania
Children who have health insurance are more likely to be immunized, receive regular check-ups and get prompt treatment for common childhood ailments, such as ear infections and asthma. Healthy kids are successful kids. They are more productive. They thrive in school.
Faces & Facts - Children with Behavioral Health Care Needs
Sure, health insurance is important in preventing and treating childhood illnesses and injuries. But did you know many behavioral health conditions such as childhood depression and anxiety disorders are covered under public health insurance, too? Behavioral health is an important component in the overall wellness of a child and enables the child to grow into a healthy, productive adult.
Principles for Development & Implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Partnership for Children worked with a number of other health advocacy organizations to create a set of guiding principles to protect children in the development and implementation of health care reform in the state. The principles take into account the importance that all children receive the necessary physical health and behavioral health services they require in a quality fashion.
