Hawaii Ending Universal Child Health Care

(AP)  Hawaii is dropping the only state universal child health care program in the United States just seven months after it launched.

Gov. Linda Lingle's administration cited budget shortfalls and other available health care options for eliminating funding for the program.

A state official said families were dropping private coverage so their children would be eligible for the subsidized plan.

"People who were already able to afford health care began to stop paying for it so they could get it for free," said Dr. Kenny Fink, the administrator for Med-QUEST at the Department of Human Services. "I don't believe that was the intent of the program."

State officials said Thursday they will stop giving health coverage to the 2,000 children enrolled by Nov. 1, but private partner Hawaii Medical Service Association will pay to extend their coverage through the end of the year without government support.

"We're very disappointed in the state's decision, and it came as a complete surprise to us," said Jennifer Diesman, a spokeswoman for HMSA, the state's largest health care provider. "We believe the program is working, and given Hawaii's economic uncertainty, we don't think now is the time to cut all funding for this kind of program."

Hawaii lawmakers approved the health plan in 2007 as a way to ensure every child can get basic medical help. The Keiki (child) Care program aimed to cover every child from birth to 18 years old who didn't already have health insurance - mostly immigrants and members of lower-income families.

State health officials argued that most of the children enrolled in the universal child care program previously had private health insurance, indicating that it was helping those who didn't need it.

The U.S. is one of the few western countries that does not have universal health care, although many states have government programs to help parents cover their children.

[papoubill]

Hawaii has mandated employer-provided health care since 1974, with Hawaii?s businesses paying the highest percentage of employee health insurance premiums in the country because the Hawaii Prepaid Health Care Act (PHCA) requires almost all Hawaii employers to provide health insurance to employees who work 20 hours or more for four consecutive weeks with an employee?s contribution to health insurance coverage not exceeding 1.5 percent of wages. The result is a per-capita total health cost that is 60% of the US average ? about the same as the rest of the world, with a lower than the national average uninsured rate. The new ?universal program? was for children only and was stopped due to budget concerns, leaving intact the great coverage and low cost that comes from mandatory affordable employer provision of coverage. The insurance companies 31% overhead has to end and will only end via a public option and an affordable mandate ? either via subsidy as in the Senate Bill or via mandatory employer contribution as in Hawaii. Please contact an actuary ? I am a retired actuary ? before you write your next piece on insurance.

[COTF]

So. Surprise, surprise!! (Gomer Pyle). The dumbasses who think we should all "care" for those who we don't "care" for, and by god, if you don't care, we will, under threat of prison or death, STEAL your money to make SURE you care, have found out that this approach doesn't work?

How is it, dear readers, that so many complete, unencumbered-by-information idiots can manage to tie their shoes in the morning? Oh, right. Loafers. That's it.

Any of you in Hawaii, who swallow the guv'ment line, who vote for these idiots, who lobby for more guv'ment - please, do the rest of us a favor, and use your corpse to mollify the gods of the volcano.

[robertsgt40]

"Socialism is great until you run out of taxpayer money"...Margaret Thatcher. I guess we need to do this on a grander scale..like national govt controled healthcare? It woks in China, right?

[ontheBigIsland]

Oooops! Check out the date on this article! Oct. 17, 2008. A usually reliable site I go to posted this as "news".
Apparently, the program is still in place, as my child is a current member. Kudos to HI for providing this outstanding program! Still!

[ontheBigIsland]

As a subscriber to HMSA, we had to prove income before qualifying. Great. Now where do we take our child when sick? To cover under employer's plan would cost 50% of take home pay.

[COTF]

May I ask a few questions?

1) What is your current employment situation? (How much do you work, how many hours, how many jobs, wages, etc.)
2) How many children do you have?
3) Did you think about health insurance before you had your child(ren)?
4) Do you spend any money on: cigarettes, alcohol, entertainment of any type, prepackaged foods, etc...

[geocbs]

Very telling quote from the story.

"A state official said families were dropping private coverage so their children would be eligible for the subsidized plan. People who were already able to afford health care began to stop paying for it so they could get it for free, said Dr. Kenny Fink, the administrator for Med-QUEST at the Department of Human Services. " "I don't believe that was the intent of the program."

Actually presuming people wanted to continue to pay rediculous prices for private healthcare that would cancel you when you need it is a fallacy. Furthermore the fact that people were paying for it didn't mean they could afford it. They probably were racking up debt like everyone else.

Lastly for many people having the ability to replace ridiculous private health fake insurance with stable low cost "be there when you need it" health insurance run by government agencies answerable to the people was EXACTLY the purpose.

[bullmoose001]

Re:"The U.S. is one of the few western countries that does not have universal health care"

Actually, according to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and others, the United States is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not provide universal health care. Also, the governor of Hawaii is a Republican, and in keeping with that party''s position on health care, she couldn''t care less about access to health care.

[erasmus81]

Correction: We USED to pay so much a day for a bed in the hospital, now we pay nothing.

[erasmus81]

What we pay a month for health care, covers all surgeries, bloodwork, specialists, tests and doctors visits.

[erasmus81]

I don''''t know what the cost would be in Canada, last year I had some blood clots in one leg I was sent to the Hospital and spent two days. they gave intravenous
blood thinners for 24 hrs. and kept me another 24 hrs. to check the only treatment I had was the blood thinner and the bill was 12,700.00 dollars this is outrageous the room was 2400.00.

Posted by d7767w at 09:14 PM : Oct 18, 2008

In Canada, we pay nothing for anything done in the hospital. It doesn''t matter what it is. We pay so much a month for health care, which I stated in an earlier post, and that''s it. We do pay so much a day for a bed, but it is nothing compared to what you pay.