Health Coverage at Risk for Ohio Children & Families
National Advocates Expecting a Decision on King v. Burwell • June, 2015
In the coming weeks, the Supreme Court will rule on King v. Burwell
(King), a case that could have far-reaching effects on health coverage
in Ohio and across the country. The court will rule on whether the
Affordable Care Act (ACA) allows consumers to receive tax credits to
help pay for insurance in the states like Ohio that did not set up their
own health insurance marketplaces. When Congress wrote and passed the
ACA, drafters agreed that the tax credits would be available in all
states. However, opponents of the law have latched onto their own
interpretation and are seeking to undermine the ACA by denying tax
credits to those who sign up for coverage through Healthcare.gov. In
Ohio, families and individuals sign up for coverage and obtain their tax
credits through Healthcare.gov because the state did not set up its own
state-based marketplace.
As many as 459,000 Ohioans could go uninsured if the court rules for
King, according to The Urban Institute. According to HHS, about 11
percent of Ohio’s marketplace enrollees are children, meaning more than
20,000 Ohio kids could be among those who lose coverage. And even more
children would be put at risk when their parents lose health coverage as
that impacts the health and financial security of the whole family.
Ohio’s rate of insurance rates among the lowest in the nation. A ruling
that takes tax credits away from those enrolled through Healthcare.gov
would only add to the ranks of the uninsured by pricing even more
Ohioans out of the health insurance market.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, things could get even worse. Experts
predict that a bad ruling will cause health insurance premiums to spike
for millions of Americans who have health insurance in the individual
market, including those who currently receive premium tax credits and
those who would not receive premium tax credits regardless of King.
Legal experts also suggest that a favorable ruling for King could have
implications for Medicaid funding in states that did not set up their
own state-based marketplace.
Everyone involved in the health care system, including hospitals,
providers and insurance companies, strongly disagrees with the
challengers’ position. This is a political tactic from opponents of the
ACA to dismantle the law.
With so much at stake, we’ll be following the case closely and will let
you know about the ruling and its implications for Ohio’s children and
families shortly after the court issues its decision.
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A Collaboration to Support Programs Focused on Kids' Health
Voices receives the David and Lucile Packard Foundation's first ever children's healthy development grants • March, 2015
Ohioans know the foundation for a lifetime of health and learning is
built in the first five years of a child’s life. But in order to reach
their full potential, young kids need quality health care and early
learning services that help them meet important developmental
milestones.
Voices for Ohio’s Children, Children Now, Coalition for the Medically
Underserved, Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law and
Pennsylvania’s Partnership for Children are collaborating to support
programs focused on development in the earliest years because we know
it’s one of the best ways to ensure kids grow up healthy. That’s why we
are excited to announce that we are one of five partnerships to receive
the David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s first-ever children’s healthy
development grants.
The grants recognize that we, along with our partners in California,
Colorado, Illinois and Pennsylvania, are advancing innovative,
collaborative approaches to get young kids the developmental screening,
support and intervention they need to grow and thrive.
The Packard Foundation’s first-ever children’s healthy development grant
will help us advance initiatives that ensure that every child in Ohio
gets the screening, referrals, and services they need to reach their
full potential.
We will help Ohio adopt a comprehensive approach to children’s health so
parents and providers have the appropriate tools to promote children’s
health and well-being.
We will support early screening, referrals and services that ensure
children in Ohio reach important developmental milestones and start
school ready to learn.
Most importantly, we will work together as a collaborative to identify
opportunities to partner together to improve education and services for
families.
By supporting innovative and collaborative approaches that ensure young
kids get the screening, referrals and services they need to reach their
developmental milestones, Ohio can ensure children are healthy, ready to
start school, and on track to reach their full potential.
Voices for Ohio’s Children will seek to improve Healthchek, Ohio’s Early
and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT) program, both
externally – by promoting more clear, frequent outreach to families
about the services available to them through Healthchek – and internally
– by linking and coordinating services to optimize health outcomes for
children.
The Packard Foundation grant will help Ohio adopt a comprehensive
approach to children’s health so parents and providers have the right
tools help kids hit developmental milestones.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all children are
screened for developmental milestones during well-child visits at nine
months, 18 months and 24 or 30 months. Kids have the best chance of
starting school ready to learn when developmental or behavioral progress
is addressed early in life through appropriate screenings, referrals
and services.
As we move forward in this effort, it is critical that providers,
advocates and policymakers in Ohio work together. That’s why we are
working to identify opportunities to partner with others who also want
to improve education and services for families so all kids reach their
full potential.
We are excited about charting this new path and hope you will join us!
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Sandy's Refelections on the 5th Anniversary of C.H.I.P.
Remember when Congress used to get things done? Today’s headlines make
it feel like a distant memory, but it wasn’t so long ago that Democrats
and Republicans in Washington worked together to help real people with
real problems. In fact, five years ago this month, Congress passed and
President Obama signed legislation to help uninsured children by
extending and improving the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
That law will soon expire, and what Congress does (or doesn’t do) to
help is up to us.
CHIP, called Healthy Start in Ohio, has been an astounding success. In
the wake of a recession that cost millions of parents their
employer-sponsored health insurance, the uninsured rate among America’s
children has actually gone down, thanks largely to CHIP. Right here in
Ohio, a tough economy has driven child poverty up, but the number of
uninsured children has actually gone down.
That means that when hard-working families face tough times, children
can still count on getting the preventive care they need to stay healthy
and focused in school. And because health care costs are a big driver
of bankruptcies and foreclosures, covering kids through Healthy Start
helps families battered by the economy hang on until they can get back
on their feet. And Healthy Start brings federal funds into Ohio’s
economy, protecting local jobs in doctors' offices and hospitals here in
Columbus.
And that’s just good sense. With Healthy Start, a little girl can keep
her asthma under control for a few hundred dollars a year. But if she
remains uninsured and a full-blown asthma attack requires
hospitalization, the costs quickly jump into the thousands. And if her
parents are unemployed, we all pay – through higher insurance premiums
to offset hospitals’ costs for uncompensated care.
CHIP works for children and for all of us. That’s why the Affordable
Care Act essentially left CHIP untouched. The simple fact is that the
ACA’s centerpiece “exchange” marketplaces aren’t focused on covering
uninsured kids. And they don’t combine pediatrician-recommended benefits
packages for children with out-of-pocket costs parents can afford.
That’s what CHIP and Medicaid do very well. It’s what they have
effectively and cost-effectively done for more than 15 years.
This success story is at risk, because most of CHIP’s funding will
expire next year unless Congress acts first. And, as recent headlines
show, Congress has a habit of not acting until the last minute – if
then. But the last minute won’t work in this case, because CHIP is a
federal-state partnership, and state governments need time to plan their
budgets. If Congress waits, state governments will start freezing CHIP
enrollment or even ending their CHIP programs. It’s happened in the past
when funding was in question. And it’s beginning to happen right now,
with at least one state already considering legislation to end their
CHIP programs after 2015, because they expect inaction from Washington.
But we can all help to protect Healthy Start for Ohio kids. Let Senators
Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman and area congressional representatives
know that business-as-usual won’t cut it when children’s health is on
the line. Tell them that legislation to extend and strengthen CHIP must
be a top priority for 2014.
Healthy Start was the bipartisan idea of a Republican-controlled
Congress and a Democratic president. And just five years ago, Congress
worked together to protect and improve Healthy Start. Now more than
ever, Healthy Start provides a much-needed reminder that America’s
lawmakers can rise above ideology to make life better for real children
in real families right here in Ohio. Let’s urge our leaders in
Washington to do it again.