By Crystal Swann
February 12, 2007

Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) President and founder Marian Wright Edelman on January 26 outlined CDF’s proposal to guarantee all children health insurance in 2007 during the closing plenary session of the 75th Winter Meeting. “Dr. King said of all the forms of inequality health care inequality is the most damaging… because it’s about life… it’s a basic human right,” stated Edelman.

“A child is born, neglect or abuse, every 35 seconds… every 36 seconds a child is born into poverty… why are there 13 million children living in the rich nation in the world and every 46 seconds a child is born without health insurance in the richest and most industrial nation in the world?” remarked Edelman.

As outlined, the proposal would consolidate the children’s portion of Medicaid and the state children’s health insurance program to create one new'streamlined children’s health insurance program building on the best successes and features of both. All children would be guaranteed coverage and comprehensive benefits in the new program. Currently, Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), provide coverage for uninsured children. SCHIP covers about five million children with benefits that vary by state and is not guaranteed, while Medicaid covers over 25 million children, is an entitlement, and provides comprehensive health and mental health services.

In addition it proposes to establish, a national eligibility level to cover all children; a national benefit package that guarantees that children in every state all medically necessary services; Streamlined mechanisms for enrollment; Guaranteed coverage and elimination of waiting lists; and adequate provider reimbursement rates at or near the levels for private coverage to ensure that children actually receive needed services. More importantly it would insure that states would incur no additional cost for expanding coverage and enhancing benefits or for increased provider reimbursement.

With a price tag of nearly $26 billion, including $14.8 billion for expansion and improvement of coverage and an additional $11.3 billion to increase access to health care by increasing health care provider payments to approximate Medicare levels, the proposal would operate on the premise of presumptive eligibility for all children. More specifically, every child and pregnant woman living in a family with incomes at or below 300 percent of the federal poverty level ($60,000 for a family of four in 2006) would qualify for the new program. The benefits package would cover all medically necessary health care, including the early prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment now covered under Medicaid.

During her remarks, Edelman put the cost of this new benefits package into perspective. “It’s a bargain… it’s less than 3.5 months of the Iraq war… it is less than 16 days of military spending... it is about five months of what we found the money to give the wealthiest one percent of American tax payers in 2007… 5.5 months of an estate tax repeal… we don’t have a money issue we have a values issue…”

To view the video of Edelman’s speech, go to the website usmayors.org and click on Winter Meeting video coverage.