By Andrea Kovach, The Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law
That means that instead of having their coverage cut off right before school started, these children continued to have access to immunizations, doctors visits, medication, vision care, dental care, and medical devices like eyeglasses and asthma inhalers.
These are children with parents who are often employed, but at low-income jobs, usually without access to affordable coverage. These families have moderate incomes and they contribute financially by paying monthly premiums of $40 per child.
And every dollar the state spends on the medical services for almost all of the kids covered under this Act– the state gets reimbursed 88 cents by the federal government. This high reimbursement rate makes this health insurance a terrific bargain for the state.
It is also a smart investment in prevention and early diagnosis, which promotes good health while saving money.
When a child has health coverage it means that he or she can have an ongoing relationship with a doctor and receive preventive care. When a child has health insurance it means a higher likelihood of early detection of disease, better management of chronic diseases, like diabetes and asthma, and fewer days missed at school.
Health coverage during childhood pays off in the long-term, resulting in fewer expensive adult emergency room visits and hospitalizations. It’s no wonder that a growing body of research is clear: over their lives, children covered by public insurance will contribute more in taxes, be more likely to attend and complete college, will have higher wages and longer lives.
In short, the health coverage provided by this Act not only benefits these children but provides a terrific return on investment to our state.
Bipartisan commitments towards the health of our children and their families is why Illinois’s rate of uninsured Hispanic children is 4.5 percent, one of the lowest in the country and less than half the national average—and why Illinois’s uninsurance rate for all children in the state is less than four percent— again one of the lowest in the nation.
