Our View: Investing in children
Dr. Chris Olson, medical director at Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital, sees it all the time: Kids wind up in the hospital with dental abscesses so severe they need general anesthesia to have their teeth fixed. They’ve never been to see a dentist.
Last week, Gov. Chris Gregoire signed a new law designed to prevent these scenarios. It will provide medical, vision, mental health and, yes, dental coverage for an additional 38,000 children in Washington state.
Their parents earn modest incomes and usually work for employers who do not provide health insurance. Nationally, more employers are dropping health care coverage for these workers, a 9 percent decline since 1997.
The federal government has failed to solve the nation’s health care crisis and now states are stepping in to tackle it themselves. This year, many governors are focusing on children’s health care coverage.
This new Washington law will provide health insurance to children who live at or below 250 percent of the federal poverty level, currrently $50,000 for a family of four. In 2009, the law will extend to families at 300 percent, or $62,000 for a family of four.
It makes Washington a leader in the country, in part because it’s designed to give low-income children a “medical home,” with a doctor they can visit regularly for checkups, vaccinations, developmental screenings, preventive care and advice. When they’re sick during the night, their parents will have a doctor to call.
The cost will be about $60 million over the next two years, with about half paid by the state and half by the federal government.
The law will increase reimbursements to doctors and reward those with higher performance levels. That will help doctors care for more poor children. They’ve had trouble keeping practices afloat when their costs for an office call run $70, yet the state pays only $50.
Too many children lack a family doctor and grow up believing you simply have to tough out your illnesses until you can’t anymore. And then you head to the emergency room.
That habit winds up costing society entirely too much. At Sacred Heart Medical Center, a child’s single emergency room visit costs $1,000. A hospital stay runs $3,000 to $5,000. And that’s where children with untreated asthma or diabetes often land.
A lack of health insurance also impacts education. Washington state has been working hard to increase learning for all students. But just imagine how difficult it must be to concentrate on reading a textbook or solving a math problem when your teeth constantly hurt or you’re wheezing for air.
All children deserve to have a doctor who can prescribe inhalers for their asthma or insulin for their diabetes. And no child should wait until they’re in their teens for their first trip to a dentist’s chair.
This new law is a wise investment – with the potential to improve the health and well-being of the state’s population for years to come.