Every child in Pennsylvania deserves access to proper healthcare. This should not be a controversial idea. Yet while millions of Americans will get access to healthcare in 2014 through the Affordable Care Act, tens of thousands of PA kids are being turned away, purposely left out of the system. This is unacceptable and must change.
In 2006, the Pennsylvania legislature enacted reform to “Cover All Kids” under the CHIP program. Except “All Kids” doesn’t really mean all kids. The legislation exempts children living in Pennsylvania who are immigrants whose families entered the United States without proper documentation. That’s 47,000 kids that the state would rather see suffer than get proper medical attention. “Children have no control over their parent’s choice to bring them lawfully or unlawfully into the country,” PCCY’s Health Policy Director Colleen McCauley testified at a Healthy PA hearing in January. “Consequently, children should not be penalized for the actions of their parents and should be afforded coverage through CHIP.”
It gets worse. “Immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally cannot participate in the system,” the Altoona Mirror reported in December. “But many have eligible relatives who are citizens or legal residents.” However, due to fear of repercussions from immigration officials, many undocumented immigrants will not seek healthcare coverage for their eligible citizen children. The legislature does have the ability to change this. “The healthcare options available to the most needy immigrants are limited, and vary widely from state to state,” the Atlantic wrote. “States have the option of using federal funds to provide prenatal care to pregnant women whose lack of legal status makes them ineligible for Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program provides coverage to nearly 8 million children (not just immigrants) in families with incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid. Even so, the fear of deportation scares qualified families away.” By making it illegal for undocumented immigrants to obtain health care, we block an uncountable number of eligible children from it.
But this isn’t about numbers; it’s about children. Children like “Elena.” Elena is ten years old and desperately needs a tooth pulled and a root canal, but her parents cannot afford these dental procedures. A school nurse helped refer her to a mobile dentist who provides free care, but the procedures she needs are too complicated for them to handle. Since Elena is not eligible for CHIP or Medicaid under state law, she is forced to live with chronic mouth pain that affects her ability to concentrate in school. Elena did not choose to come here; she should not be punished for a decision she did not make. Her immigration status should not matter, all that matters is there is a child in pain and we are making a choice not to help her.
Healthy PA has made some progress for children by reauthorizing CHIP and eliminating a waiting period for some children. While Healthy PA has taken a step in the right direction, it is not a large enough one. The Inquirer reported Thursday that “Corbett’s proposal to insure an estimated 500,000 people, part of his broader ‘Healthy Pennsylvania’ plan, would not take effect until 2015, at a loss of $7 million to $10 million a day in federal funds.” State Rep. Mike Sturla said, “I don’t think there is any way that you can look at the current proposal and see it as anything other than a stall tactic.” Healthy PA is not a solution until everyone is covered. “Pennsylvania should not compromise children’s healthy wellbeing by limiting their access to health care services,” testified Dr. Judith Silver, a pediatric psychologist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Vice President of PCCY’s Board of Directors. “Cover All Kids” and Healthy PA have been a good start, but they do not go far enough. Action must be taken in Harrisburg to ensure that every Pennsylvania gets access to the healthcare they need.
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