You’ve probably heard that California is struggling economically, and there has been a bit of speculation that the state will soon be bankrupt. And unfortunately, the children’s health insurance program was one of the first programs to get cut. Healthy Families is California’s low cost insurance program for children and teens. The program provides health, dental, and vision coverage to children who do not have insurance and do not qualify for the free Medi-Cal program. Members of the Healthy Families program pay an insurance premium each month. The premium averages about $4 to $17 for each child, or no more than $51 for a family. Members also pay a co-payment (usually $5) when they go to the doctor or get other services, but some health care services are free of charge.
Sadly, Healthy Families was just notified that there is a drastic shortfall in the Healthy Families funding for the year, resulting in insufficient funds to operate the program. To ensure that expenditures to not exceed available funding, Healthy Families was forced to implement a waiting list on new enrollment, effective July 17, 2009. At this time, no new enrollees are allowed into the children’s health insurance program. California is the first state to take such drastic measures.
In happier news, the state of New Hampshire is the first state in the nation to expand their children’s health insurance program to young adults. The state’s Healthy Kids plan allows low-income families to purchase affordable health insurance for their children. Last week, Governor John Lynch signed a bill that would expand the program to young adults. The new expansion is designed to offer health insurance options to adults younger than 26 who earn less than $43,000 per year, and who cannot purchase health insurance through their families or employers. The adults will be required to pay the full cost of their premiums, so the plan should not be costly for the state or federal government.
The plan will include comprehensive coverage, including medical, dental care, and prescription drugs. Although the details of the plan aren’t worked out exactly, they have estimated the premiums to be around $200 per month. Healthy Kids is considering separating the children’s insurance pool from the new adult one. They want to ensure that this new expansion will not jeopardize benefits for children. An effective date for Young Adult enrollment has not yet been determined.
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