Wyoming report still far behind on children’s health care / Public News Service

LARAMIE, Wyo. — Wyoming ranks 45th nationally for child health, and about 15,000 children in Wyoming do not have health insurance, according to the Annie E. Foundation’s 2021 child count data book. Casey, widely regarded as the most comprehensive annual report on children. in the nation.

Samin Dadelahi, chief operating officer of the Wyoming Community Foundation, said the state’s overall ranking of 17th in the nation would be much higher, if not for low scores on child health.

“When we look at, for example, the economic well-being of the family, of the community, that’s where Wyoming ranked very high, in the top five in the country,” Dadelahi pointed out. “And yet our continued low health score at age 45 brings that whole number down.”

Wyoming ranks 49th, just ahead of Texas, in the number of children without health insurance.

Dadelahi noted that public support for Medicaid expansion was so strong in the last session that lawmakers gave the proposal to the Joint Committee on Revenues. The expansion would provide coverage to 24,000 currently uninsured Wyomingites and is expected to reduce the number of uninsured children.

Leslie Boissière, the foundation’s vice president of external affairs, said the permanent expansion of the child tax credit would provide families with children under six with $300 a month and could reduce long-term disparities. date affecting millions of color families.

“At a time when families are worried about being able to pay their mortgage, or pay their rent, this is a significant sum,” Boissière said. “Up to half of the children currently living below the poverty line are expected to live above the poverty line.”

The report showed last December that 21% of Wyoming adults with children said they felt down, depressed or hopeless. In March this year, the number rose to 28%, largely due to disruption and isolation during the COVID-19 health emergency.

Dadelahi urged lawmakers to consider the rapid increase as they use stimulus funds.

“Families who might already be stressed, and you add that all that on top, especially in rural areas where there’s already a lot of isolation and where there’s a lack of mental health support infrastructure “, explained Dadelahi. .

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Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program have been a lifeline for struggling families during the pandemic – and a new report suggests that more than six million children in the United States could needlessly lose this coverage.

A “continuous enrollment” requirement will be lifted when the public health emergency ends, which could be as early as April.

The federal government then gives the states 12 months to re-determine people’s eligibility. But Ohio’s new state budget calls for this work to be completed in 90 days.

Kelly Vyzral, senior health policy associate at the Children’s Defense Fund-Ohio, said the shorter timeline could result in families being mistakenly excluded from coverage.

“There are labor shortages that affect Ohio Medicaid, just like they affect every other business in Ohio, and they have a tremendous workload to deal with,” Vyzral said. “And we want to make sure that every family and every child who is eligible for Medicaid is able to maintain that coverage.”

Findings from the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families indicate an increase of nearly 12% in the number of children in Ohio enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP between February 2020 and June 2021. This represents approximately 134,000 children at risk of losing coverage. .

More than half of all children in the United States are enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP. The executive director of the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University, Joan Alker, said 37.3 million children are currently protected by continuous coverage.

“This unprecedented mass eligibility redetermination process carries great risks for children and their families,” Alker said. “And that risk will vary depending on where they live.”

Positive steps taken by Ohio to cover families are noted in the report, including the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act and the merger of the Medicaid and CHIP programs.

Vyzral said it also eliminated other red tape.

“They offer 12 months continuous coverage for families and children,” Vyzral. “They’ve improved their level of passive renewal, so families don’t have to keep submitting information if Medicaid can verify it through the existing data and records they have.”

She said she hoped Ohio would take advantage of the allowed 12-month time frame for reconsiderations.

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Washington state lawmakers passed a measure last year that made historic investments in child care. This year, providers want their representatives in Olympia to ensure that the initiative follows the price of care.

The Fair Start for Kids Act dramatically increases subsidy rates for child care providers. But Pauli Owen, owner of Pauli’s Playschool in Bellingham, said the rates are based on market research from 2018. She said the rates needed to be updated so providers can support their workers.

“When we have an area that unfortunately going to places like Starbucks or even fast food can pay more,” she said, “then our staff who work with these little guys — it just creates this instability , and that makes it difficult for kids to make those lasting relationships.”

Owen and his union, Service Employees International Union Local 925, said they want the Legislature to fully fund Fair Start for Kids at the current market rate. State lawmakers are beginning to craft the budget as this year’s session enters its home stretch.

Mary Curry, who runs Pathways Enrichment Academy in Tacoma and is also a member of SEIU Local Lodge 925, said child care centers will have to close if they can’t get enough funding to keep staff.

“We’re one of those businesses that makes the community thrive,” she said. “So the importance of being able to support our business – having a salary that would allow providers to stay open to support this community as well as their families – is important.”

Fair Start for Kids also aims to make child care more affordable for families in Washington State, where it is already among the least affordable in the country. The average annual cost of infant care is about $14,500, according to the Economic Policy Institute. For a 4-year-old, it’s about $11,000.

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A new report has found that children in Florida participating in the Children’s Health Insurance Program may be most at risk of losing health coverage when the official public health emergency for COVID-19 expires.

Researchers at the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families have warned that millions of children could lose coverage as early as April, when states must recheck the eligibility of everyone enrolled in Medicaid, including children.

Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families and research professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy, said the decisions to make CHIP a separate program from Medicaid and to require families to contribute to the cost increase the challenges of keeping children enrolled.

“For all of these reasons, we now estimate that 6.7 million children are at extremely high risk of becoming uninsured during this process,” Alker reported. “As large as that number is, we actually think it’s a conservative estimate.”

The report says 2.9 million children could re-enroll in public health programs if they lost coverage, but about 3.8 million would need to find other insurance coverage or become uninsured. While children in every state are at risk of losing coverage, the report lists Florida as one of the highest risk states, along with Georgia and Texas.

Alison Yager, executive director of the Florida Health Justice Project, said she hopes Florida leaders will get ahead of the looming issue to ease transitions into Florida’s CHIP program, known as Florida KidCare.

“Even short gaps disrupt child care,” Yager pointed out. “If children have unmet health needs that will impact their education, it will impact their ability to go to work. It impacts children and families in so many ways.”

While Medicaid recipients age five and older must have their eligibility checked twice a year,
eligibility of children enrolled in Florida KidCare is checked only once a year. Yager fears that many families will be shocked when the relative stability that has accompanied the public health emergency comes to an end.

Yager suggested the state bolster call center staff to make insurance programs more responsive.

Tricia Brooks, a research professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy, said states can do many things to avoid coverage gaps, including moving children into programs for which they are eligible, rather than dropping them altogether. .

“States should also improve processes for tracking enrollees through multiple channels of communication, when action is needed to prevent a loss of coverage,” Brooks urged.

About five million Floridians are enrolled in the state’s Medicaid program, most with managed care plans.

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