HEALTH CARE : CHOC Newsletter Looks at Impact of Reform on Children

As the debate over health-care reform rages in the hallways of Capitol Hill, the folks over at Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) have decided to make their own statement about how the complicated issue will affect kids.

In a quarterly newsletter called The Human Side of Health Care Reform, CHOC features stories of children who are former patients. The third issue was printed last week.

The stories, some of which have no happy endings, are compelling testaments to how families try to cope with debilitating illness.

Take Crista Kuri and her battle for the lives of her two sons, Brandon and Matthew, for instance. Brandon was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at the age of 13 months, while Matthew developed insulin-dependent diabetes soon after. Torn by the stress over the medical problems, Kuri and her husband divorced. Now Crista cannot find work, while her ex-husband cannot change jobs because it would be difficult to find another employer to accept him into its health plan because of the boys’ preconditions.

The story analyzes the pros and cons of this case under proposed health-care reform. The good news is that universal coverage would guarantee much-needed health care for the boys. On the down side, research for the cure of cystic fibrosis could very well “cease under the cost controls imposed by reform.

“So for Crista, Matthew and Brandon, health-care reform could improve their lives--or it could be a disaster. It will all depend on the details of the final plan,” the story ends.

Jena Jensen, director of marketing for CHOC, said that the stories of the Kuris and other families were chosen because they illustrated both sides of the debate in a way legislators and executives have all but ignored.