‘No’ to sick kids

UNTIL LAST WEEK, IT LOOKED as if Sacramento might use a fraction of this year’s multibillion-dollar budget surplus to expand health coverage for more kids in California. But in their final budget negotiations, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature decided that it was better to cave to a small group of vocal Republicans who believe that sick 3-year-olds should be punished for their parents’ actions.

There are an estimated 800,000 uninsured children in California. Half are eligible for state-provided insurance but are not enrolled to receive it, for whatever reason. Most of the rest are legal residents whose families earn more than the $48,000-a-year means-test threshold to qualify for Healthy Families, the state program, and about 120,000 kids are undocumented and largely poor. Many uninsured children -- documented and undocumented -- receive no care until they’re sick enough to visit an emergency room, which by law must treat them. If more of them saw primary-care doctors, they’d stay healthier, place far less strain on county hospitals and save taxpayers money over the long haul.

Understanding that, 18 of the state’s 58 counties, including Los Angeles, have been launching their own insurance plans for undocumented kids. These programs -- most of which also are means-tested -- are so popular that tens of thousands of kids are on waiting lists. This spring, the governor proposed to clear those lists by using just $23 million from this year’s surplus. But neither he nor Democratic legislative leaders were willing to stand up to Republicans like state Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth (R-Murrieta), who believes that “it is reprehensible to offer services to individuals who come to California illegally.”

What’s truly reprehensible is that the immigration brouhaha is bleeding into so many other policy areas. This month, for instance, the federal government began requiring Medicaid recipients to show proof of citizenship because Congress is worried (unfoundedly, according to an inspector general’s report) that illegal immigrants are perpetrating a significant amount of Medicare fraud. Now, 3 million legal U.S. citizens who don’t have birth certificates, some of whom are poor and incapacitated, face losing their benefits because of anti-immigrant hysteria.

Cutting the waiting lines to the county programs offering better healthcare to kids would have cost $23 million in available one-time money. Covering all uninsured children of illegal immigrants who would otherwise qualify for Healthy Families if their parents would have come here legally could cost as much as $60 million a year -- a lot, but worth it. Insuring all uncovered children in California remains a public-policy goal worth pursuing.

Schwarzenegger and the Democratic leadership were wrong to trade the well-being of children for political compromise. Hopefully the Legislature, which is expected to take up the issue again later this summer, will show more courage once the deadline pressure of budget-making is removed.